


Remember Me

by PatriciaBurtness



Category: Henry Cavill - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:26:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27664687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PatriciaBurtness/pseuds/PatriciaBurtness
Summary: What happens when Henry Cavill runs into the girl he left behind. Will their love be rekindled, or is there too much water under the bridge?
Comments: 66
Kudos: 62





	1. Doctor Delaney

November 2017

“Paging doctor Delaney, Paging doctor Delaney. Please call extension 1702. Doctor Delaney extension 1702.” Mya Delaney sighed. She loved her job as a pediatric surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital, but she’d been in surgeries all day and had just taken 5 minutes for a cup of tea before finishing her paperwork for the day.

She stood and made her way to the phone in the staff lounge. She made quick work of clearing the situation, and took her mug of tea to her office. More than 2 hours later she startled at a knock on her door.

“What are you still doing here? You were supposed to go home an hour ago!” Her best friend Natalie Parker chastised.

“Sorry, Nat. I’m trying to get ahead on a few things,” she said, shutting down her computer.

“Well, you’re officially done for the night, because we’re going out tonight.”

“Nat, it’s Thursday,” Mya said, taking her coat and purse off the coat rack in the corner, ushering her friend out of the office.

“Thirsty Thursday is a thing,” Natalie responded walking with Mya down the corridor.

“When you’re in college! We’re rapidly approaching our mid-thirties. I can’t go out drinking during the week anymore. Besides, I have surgery tomorrow. So do you!”

“Please My,” she pleaded, “this new guy I’m seeing is bartending at this club and I want you to check him out for me.” 

“Ugh, fine. Where is this bar? I’ll go for one drink. I want to actually sleep tonight.”

Natalie grimaced, “It’s out by Camden Lock.” 

“Are you taking the piss? You’re expecting me to haul my ass all the way out to Camden, to go drinking on a Thursday night? I must really love you, you bitch.” Natalie loved to hear Mya use British slang. Though her friend had lived in the UK for almost 20 years her American accent was still very pronounced, though certain words brought out her public school accent.

Natalie threw her arms around her friend’s neck. “Thank you! I really want your impression of this guy. He’s so hot. I’ll meet you at yours around 7:30.”

“Fine, but we’re taking a taxi, I’m not dealing with the circus that is Camden Town; not tonight.”

“Deal. See you at 7:30!” Natalie cheered, before peeling off toward her tube station, while Mya made her way to Russell Square. As was typical, she couldn’t find a seat on the 30 minute ride from the Hospital to the South Kensington station. Not wanting to deal with having to cook and clean, she stopped at M&S to get a pre-made meal to eat while she got ready for her night out with Natalie.

Mya studied her reflection while she decided on clothes for the trip to the bar. Her physique wasn’t going to win any shape contests, but she managed to keep the jiggly bits down to a minimum. In high school she’d been heavier than all the other girls, a fact they never let her forget, but in college she’d taken up running and had always enjoyed swimming. She exercised enough to make up for whatever horrible eating habits she may have. 

Mya pulled on a pair of dark skinny jeans, paired with a plain white v-neck t-shirt, that she’d top with her waist length chocolate brown leather jacket when it came time to leave. She pulled her dark brown hair into a sleek tail and accentuated her eyes with an exaggerated winged liner. 

At precisely 7:30 Natalie rang Mya’s doorbell. Mya opened the door to let her friend in while she pulled on her knee high boots that matched her jacket.

“I love those boots. My stumpy legs could never pull them off, but they just make your legs look even longer,” Natalie complained.

“Those of us who are not model gorgeous need to do what we can to be noticed,” Mya replied, grabbing her purse and keys.

“Please, you’re beautiful, and you know it,” Natalie replied, walking out to the waiting cab.

Wanting to change the subject Mya probed, “so tell me about this guy.”

Natasha spent the next 20 minutes telling her friend all about Stefano, the Italian bartender she met god only knows where. Mya loved Natalie but she wondered when her friend was going to stop going for men that were little more than grown boys. She was a successful surgeon at the most prestigious children’s hospital in London, yet most of her past boyfriends tended toward lazy leeches who strung her along for a few weeks trying to get as much from her as they could.

They finally pulled up in front of a posh club near Camden Lock. It was a much higher class place than she had been expecting for the area. Natasha gave her name at the door and they were let in.

Mya wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but the lounge feel was not it. Arranged in small groups were plush lounge chairs perfect for intellectual conversations after work over a glass of wine. There was, what appeared to be, a dance floor on the far side of the large space, but it was taken up by chairs. A long mahogany bar took up one entire wall. 

“What is this place? Why does it look like a cross between a nightclub and a cigar lounge?”

“Because it is. On weeknights, it’s this. A place to come, have a few drinks with friends that’s a step up from your neighborhood pub, then on weekends all the chairs go away and it’s “shake your booty ‘til you can’t shake no more”. There’s Stefano,” Natalie said, pointing out the buff man with dark hair behind the bar.

“Good lord Nat, is he even old enough to drink?” Mya asked incredulously.

“He’s 35. It’s the lighting, he looks older in the daylight. Trust me. Let’s go get some drinks,” Natalie said, pulling Mya toward the bar.

The raven-haired man’s face lit up when he saw them approach. “Natalia! Tesoro mio!” He reached across the bar to kiss Natalie deeply. Mya was impressed.

When Natalie regained her senses, she introduced Stefano to Mya. “Stef, this is Mya Delaney. My, this is Stefano Vitale,” she exaggerated the pronunciation of the Italian name.. 

Stefano reached across the bar to kiss Mya’s cheeks.

“Piacere di conoscerla, Stefano,” Mya greeted him.

His eyes sparkled, “you speak Italian Mya?” he asked with much less accent than he’d had when he greeted Natalie.

“Only a little. My father has a house in Lake Como. I spent some time there when I was in school.

“I grew up outside of Milano. It’s lovely to meet you.”

Mya and Natalie sat at the bar, to watch Stefano work. He was everything you’d expect a gorgeous Italian man to be, charming, flirtatious, generous, but he was all of that and intelligent. He spent every second possible talking to the women, but never neglected his other customers. He was charming and attentive to every patron he encountered, but still managed to give a majority of his time to Mya and Natalie. Mya couldn’t help but be charmed by the handsome Italian.

Stefano even managed to talk Mya into staying for a second drink, but she pleaded an early morning when she left her friend at the bar. Though the way Natalie and Stefano were looking at each other, she doubted they even registered her departure.

Across town, Henry Cavill blinked against the onslaught of flash bulbs. He was glad to be back in London finally. Press tours were always grueling, but this one had been especially. Between the filming delays, and moustache-gate, he was glad to be done with the project. He loved portraying Superman on the big screen, but he preferred his projects with a bit less drama surrounding them. He was glad to be sleeping in his own bed again, at least for a few nights.

He consulted with the press agent in charge of the London leg of the tour. “What is on the agenda for tomorrow again?” He asked the petite brunette with the no-nonsense demeanor, and megawatt smile.

“Tomorrow you all are meeting at the Great Ormond Street Hospital to visit with the kids before a special showing just for them. You won’t have to stay for the showing, but it usually looks better if you do. Dress is casual, it’s a children’s hospital, don’t over dress.”

“Yes ma’am,” he saluted jokingly before stepping into the car waiting to take him back home. He always enjoyed meeting the kids, but some of their stories just broke his heart. He wished he could help all of them, but he did what he could to give them a good experience.

His large black and white Akita jumped on him as soon as he opened his front door.

“Hello, Bear. Did you miss me?” In response the dog licked his face.

“Come on goofball, let’s get to bed. I’m knackered.”

Kal settled into his spot on the king sized bed while his owner readied himself for bed.

Henry sat on the side of the bed, set his alarm clock for the morning, and looked over at Kal. “Good night bear. God, I really need to get a girlfriend. My dog is my only companion.” He thought aloud, before turning off the light and dropping off to sleep almost instantly.


	2. Boarding School Blues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so happy that you've found this story that's been floating around in my head for the last several months. I'm not sure how often it will be updated, but I'm hoping it will be fairly regularly.

“Mya, oh my god, did you see what’s on the calendar for today?” Natalie asked, barging into Mya’s office late in the morning.

“No, I didn’t. I’ve been focused on my surgeries today. What’s got you in such a tizzy?”

“The cast from the new Justice League movie are coming later, and they’re having a special screening for the kids tonight.”

“Oh, is that tonight? Well that will be fun for the kids.”

“My, did you hear what I said? The stars are going to be in the building. Ben Affleck, Jason Momoa and Henry Cavill will be wandering the halls of our hospital,” Natalie almost squealed.

At the mention of Henry’s name, Mya felt a jolt to her system. Once upon a time, she would have been over the moon to see Henry Cavill in person again, but she was no longer a lovesick teenager.

“Well, I’ll do my best to avoid the media circus. I’m not in the mood for all of that today,” Mya responded. Natalie didn’t know about her history with Henry, and she wasn’t about to get into it now.

“Whatever you say. I personally will be out and about more than normal, hoping to casually run into one of them,” she laughed as she left her friend’s office.

Mya let herself take one minute to think about Henry, about the boy he’d been when she knew him, and what the man he’d grown into might have become.

_______________________________________________________________________  
1998

“Dad, I don’t understand why I have to live at school. Aren’t there schools in London that I could go to, so I can live with you?”

“You’re to attend Stowe, just as I did, now enough arguing. It is a fine school, and it will give you a solid foundation for your future as a barrister.”

“What’s a barrister?”

“You bloody well know what a barrister is. A lawyer, like myself. I swear it was a mistake to raise you in America. But your mother couldn’t bear leaving.”

“So as soon as she was gone, you got the hell out of there, is that it? Mom would be spinning in her grave if she knew you were sending me to a boarding school.” Mya spat at her father, running out of the room and up the stairs to her bedroom.

Her mother, Rosa, a Puerto Rican nurse, met her father, an English lawyer when they had been set-up by a doctor friend of his. There had been a connection but, had Rosa not gotten pregnant, it probably wouldn’t have led to marriage. But Oliver Delaney was not one to walk away from his responsibilities. 

Growing up Mya always felt her father was distant, but her mother more than made up for his standoffishness. She’d been warm, and loving, and everything a girl could want in a mother. Rosa’s family had disowned her when she’d married the handsome Brit, but Rosa felt that in order to give her daughter the best chance possible, she needed to marry Oliver. Their marriage hadn’t been bad, but it definitely wasn’t a loving relationship. They respected each other, but Oliver had never wanted children, and viewed Mya as a disappointment in his life. When Rosa had died in a car accident six months prior, Mya had been crushed. Her mother had been her best friend, and her rock. 

Once Mya’s school year had finished, he moved them back to his hometown of London. Even through her haze of mourning, Mya realized how much she enjoyed London. It didn’t remind her of her mother, like everything in their hometown of Chicago had. She kept pictures of her mother in a box in her room. Mya felt that the best way she could honor her mother was to go on to live a happy, fulfilled life. She hadn’t made any friends in London. Their neighborhood in Hampstead was mostly older couples or couples without children. At 15 her father hadn’t seen a need to get her a nanny, though the housekeeper, Mrs. Bates, had taken her out one day to show her how to use the tube system, and given her a London A-Z. Now her father had announced that when school started in September, she would be going to boarding school, at some stuffy castle looking school.

Mya knew the second she arrived at Stowe that she was not going to fit in. She was heavier than all of the other girls. The last 8 months since her mother had died had seen her turn to food for comfort in the absence of comfort from her father. She didn’t speak like the other kids, and didn’t know what they were saying half the time when they used slang terms she’d never heard before. Her roommates weren’t any help, while not outright mean to her, they made a point of excluding her from any of their plans.

While her classes were rigorous, she kept up with the work fine, and even excelled. She tested out of Spanish, due to her mother speaking to her in Spanish from the time she was a baby, so she decided to take French to fill out her schedule.

Mya spent much of her free time in the library. It was always quiet, and no one bothered her. She often saw the same four or five students studying in the library everyday, but was always too shy to strike up a conversation with any of them.

As the first break of the term approached, Mya had fallen into a rhythm. She attended all of her classes, returned to her dorm, picked up any mail, scratch that, any post, she quickly learned the “right” words to use, changed out of her school uniform, and packed all of her things to the library to work on her assignments. 

A week before the term break, Mya received a letter from her father. He wrote every week, like clockwork. The letters were short, and business like, but at least he remembered to write to her. She assumed the letter would include when he planned to pick her up for the week long term break. She was sorely mistaken. 

Mya,  
I feel it would be best for you to stay at school for the term break. I have met a woman named Miriam and she and I are planning to go to the house in Italy, so I will not be home anyway. If you write to Mrs. Bates, she will send you any treats you may want while you are at school. I will see you at the Christmas break.  
Sincerely   
Father

Mya couldn’t believe what she had just read. The letter was just as formal as his usual letters, but he had a girlfriend? And instead of seeing his daughter over her break, he was spending her school holiday with this woman she had never met. Mya had hoped to convince her father that she wasn’t happy at Stowe, and let her live at home, and go to a school in London. Mya tried with everything she had not to cry, but the tears just would not be contained. She wept silently over her textbooks and notebooks. She was nearing the one year anniversary of her mother’s death, and now her father had essentially abandoned her. It was more than she could bear.

She heard the scrape of the chair next to hers, and saw a tissue enter her field of vision. She took it without looking at whoever had sat down. She took the time to dry her eyes and wipe her nose, before looking up. She saw a boy from her year. He had dark brown hair, and blue eyes, though one of his eyes had a piece of brown in it. He had a round face that hadn’t lost all of its baby fat yet. 

“Thank you,” Mya said, finally looking at the boy.

“You’re welcome. Can I ask what’s wrong?”

“My dad just wrote to me to tell me that I won’t be going home for term break.”

“Is it because it’s such a short time and the flights to America are so long?” He asked, assuming she was an international student.

“He lives in Hampstead. He’s got a new girlfriend and they’re going to Italy,” she explained.

“Ouch. I’m sorry,” the boy replied.

“It’s ok, it’s not your fault. I just don’t know what I’m going to do for a week here alone. All of my roommates are going home, and so are most of the girls in my dorm.”

“I know what you mean. I’m going to be here over break as well. My brother and I decided to stay instead of going all the way home. It’s too far to go for just a week.”

“Where are you from?” Mya asked, thankful the boy had continued to talk to her. He had a soothing voice.

“Jersey,” he answered.

“Like New Jersey?” Mya asked, confused.

He snorted a small laugh, “no, as in Jersey. It’s a small island off the coast of France. It’s about an hour flight from London.”

“Oh, I’ve never heard of it. That’s interesting.’

“My brother, Charlie, and I were going to go into town one day to the cinema. You could join us if you wanted,” he suggested.

“That’s really nice of you, but you don’t have to take pity on me.”

“It’s not pity. I know what it’s like to feel alone. It would do you good to have something to look forward to.”

“Ok, then. I’d like that, thank you. I’m Mya by the way, Mya Delaney.”

“Henry Cavill. It’s lovely to meet you Mya,” he flashed her a smile, and for the first time since arriving at the stuffy school, Mya didn’t feel completely alone.  
_______________________________________________________________________

Henry loved seeing the looks on the kids’ faces when he appeared in their rooms. They were always so eager to talk to him, and always had stories to share. He was visiting his last little boy for the day, a young man of about 10 named James. He was a patient due to a rather complex surgery that Henry didn’t fully comprehend, even though the young boy tried to explain it in the simplest terms possible. What Henry could gather is his heart didn’t work quite right, but the doctor, Doctor D as the boy called him, had fixed him right up. This Dr D sounded like he had quite the bedside manner.

When Henry noticed the boy had a video game system connected to the TV in his room, Henry found their common ground. An avid gamer himself, he was always down for some game time. James challenged him to a round, and Henry couldn’t say no.

“Nat, do you know if the VIPs are gone yet? I want to finish my rounds and go home.”

“I believe they are, though rumor has it, they’ll be back for the screening later tonight. I might stay to watch, if only to spend some time with Jason Momoa, the things I would let that man do to me…” she trailed off.

“What about Stefano?” Mya asked.

“I think he’d approve,” Natalie laughed, as Mya walked away. 

Mya made a point to check with each of her patients, and give them some personal time. For many of these kids this wasn’t their first night in a hospital, but it could still be a scary place for them. She wanted them to be as at ease as possible.

She could hear the noise coming from James’s room half way down the hall. The little boy was so full of energy, it was hard to believe he was sick. She took his chart from the nurse’s station, and made her way to the door. “Hey, where’s all this noise coming from?” She asked bounding into the room. She stopped short when she realized the other voice coming from the room wasn’t James’s father, as she suspected, but the one man she hoped to not run into.

“Dr. D! Look! I’m winning! This is Henry, he’s Superman, but he’s not very good at video games, even you’re better than him”

Mya stared in shock at the ridiculously good looking man sitting next to the little boy.

The look on her face was mirrored on Henry’s. So much had changed about her. She was taller than he remembered. Her figure, that he could make out under her scrubs, was lithe but curvy. But her eyes, her eyes hadn’t changed a bit. The color of dark cocoa, with flecks of gold. She wasn’t smiling, but he remembered her smile could light up a room.

“Mya?” Henry asked in disbelief. 

“You know Dr. D, Henry? She’s the best.”

Henry couldn’t help but stare as his first love stared back at him.

“James, what would you say if I told you, Henry and I went to school together?” Mya asked conspiratorially.

“No, way! Really?”

Finally broken free from his stupor, “Really,” Henry confirmed to the little boy.

“Mr. Cavill, if you’d be so kind as to step out to the hallway, I need a moment with James,” Mya said, addressing him, her tone friendly yet frosty.

Henry stepped past her, out to the hallway. Not only had Dr. D not been a man, as he’d assumed, but Dr. D was his Mya Papaya. His first girlfriend. He hadn’t seen Mya since he’d left school to pursue acting. He hadn’t kept in touch as he’d promised, but once he’d arrived on set, everything had been so overwhelming, he’d had little mental energy to focus on anything else. By the time filming on that first project wrapped, she’d finished school and was off to university. They’d simply drifted apart.

He was lost in his thoughts, and almost missed her exiting the room. 

“Papaya, it’s good to see you after so long.” He said, calling her by his pet name for her.

“Please don’t call me that. Yes it’s been a long time. I’m glad to see the acting thing worked out for you,” she responded, hugging her clipboard to her chest like a shield.

“It’s been quite an adventure. Why don’t you let me take you out to dinner and we can catch-up on everything?”

“I don’t think that’s a very good idea, but thank you. I really have to finish my rounds,” she said, turning away from him.

He lightly grabbed her arm to keep her from walking away from him. “Mya, I’ve missed you. I’ve missed my best friend. And after all these years, I’ve found you again, I’m not going to just let you go.”

She shrugged her shoulder to loosen his grip and look him dead in the eyes, “why not? You did last time,” she replied and walked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? Comments? Concerns? What do you think of Mya and Henry?


	3. Natalie's Discovery

Henry stared at Mya’s retreating form, feeling like she’d just punched him with her fist, rather than just her words. It was clear to him that she was not as pleased to see him as he was to see her. He made to follow after her, but stopped when his phone buzzed. He checked the alert to see that he was needed back with the rest of the cast.

The hospital liaison explained what the set up was for the screening later that evening. Henry listened with only half an ear. He was anxious to go find Mya. When the rest of the cast dispersed he pulled the activities director aside, asking where to find Dr. Delaney. She consulted the tablet in her hands, before giving him a room number and a vague set of directions to find it.

He found her office easily once he arrived at the right floor. Her door was closed, but he knocked anyway, hoping she’d still be there. He knocked softly the first time, but a bit louder the second after getting no response. 

“She left already,” he heard a voice behind him say. He turned to see a strikingly beautiful woman with skin the color of roasted hazelnuts. Her wildly curly hair was pulled into a knot at the base of her neck. Her expression changed as he turned from curiosity to shock.

“Do you know how to get in touch with her? I’d really like to speak to her,” he asked the shocked woman.

“I do, she’s my best friend, but I’m not going to just give out her mobile to anyone that asks, even if it’s you, Henry Cavill.”

“That’s understandable, I'm hesitant to give out mine either. Do you know her office extension? I could leave her a message, and if you’d please let her know I’m looking for her, I’d be very grateful.”

Natalie gave Mya’s extension number to Henry, before turning toward her own office to give him privacy for the call, even though everything in her was screaming to listen in. She tried to focus on the last bit of charting she had to do before being able to go home. She could hear Henry’s low voice vibrating down the now quiet hallway.

“Thank you for the information. I didn’t catch your name,” Henry said, peeking around the frame of her office door.

“It’s Natalie. Natalie Parker, Mya’s best friend. Can I ask what you need to speak to her about?”

“She’ll know what it’s about. Nice to meet you Natalie. Have a good night.” And with that he turned and walked away.

Natalie stared at her phone. Her desire to call Mya making her hands burn, but she knew her friend. If she called, Mya could just hang up, but if she went over in person, her friend would have to talk to her.

Sensing that this was going to require some lubrication, Natalie stopped to get them a bottle of wine before going to Mya’s house. Walking up the block to Mya’s front door, Natalie admired the neighborhood. It was a posh area, no doubt about that, but it wasn’t as snooty as, say, Belgravia. The white houses all lined up together, the only distinguishing feature was their colored front doors. Though most opted for subdued white, or black, Mya’s front door was blue. Natalie knew Mya had once dreamed of a house in Notting Hill like Hugh Grant’s character in Notting Hill, but her practicality won out when she accepted the position at Great Ormond Street. 

Natalie stepped up to the door and rang the bell. Several seconds later when she heard nothing, she rang again, then again, then knocked loudly. Eventually Mya opened the door. Natalie had never seen her friend look like this. She was wearing baggy sweat pants and an even baggier tshirt. Her hair was a rat’s nest on top of her head. Her eyes were staring at Natalie with a gaze that couldn’t focus. Natalie couldn’t imagine how her friend had gotten into this state. She’d seen her less than 2 hours before.

“What are you doing here?” Mya asked, confused. “Did we have plans? Did I blow you off?”

“No, we didn’t have plans. What happened to you? How much have you had to drink already?”

“I just finished my first bottle. Don’t judge me. I’m going through some stuff ok?” She asked, sounding like a petulant teenager.

Finally catching on Natalie asked, “does Henry Cavill have anything to do with that stuff you’re going through?”

“NO!” Mya quickly and vehemently denied, sounding more like a teenager than she had before. She turned away from Natalie toward the kitchen and her freshly opened second bottle of wine.

Natalie followed. “He stopped by your office. He was looking for you. Mya, why was Henry Cavill looking for you?”

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask him?” Mya asked defensively. If she hadn’t found the whole situation hilarious, Natalie might have been insulted by her friend’s attitude.

“I did ask him. He said, you would know what it was about. So I ask you again. Why was Henry Cavill looking for you?”

Mya put her head on her folded arms on the kitchen counter, and groaned. “Whyyyyy?” She asked, to no one in particular. “My life was going great. I’ve got my house, and a great job, and friends. Why did he have to come back now?”

Now they were getting somewhere. “What do you mean come back? Are you telling me that Henry Cavill was in your life before?”

Mya sighed, exhaling all of the air from her lungs. “We used to date,” she mumbled.

“Excuse me?” Natalie asked, her voice raising several octaves on the last syllable. “You used to date Henry Cavill, and just somehow never mentioned it to me? How?”

“I didn’t date ‘Henry Cavill’ I dated Fat Cavill from Jersey while we were at boarding school. We were friends for like a year before we started dating. I told you about my first boyfriend.”

“But you didn’t mention that it was Henry freaking Cavill,” Natalie insisted. “So what happened? Why’d you break up?”

“Technically we never did, I suppose. He left school about a month before A levels, to go film The Count of Monte Cristo, and I never heard from him again. No scratch that. I got two postcards from Ireland. Postcards! From Ireland! Like he was halfway around the world, not just the next island over. It’s not like I didn’t have email! It was 2001 for fuck’s sake. And now I see him today, in the hospital, and all of those old feelings just came rushing back. I don’t even know how I feel right now? Am I mad? A little, I suppose. Am I upset? Yeah, I guess. Am I sad? Again, I think a little bit. All of these emotions that I had buried way, way down deep, bubbled to the surface, so I’m trying to drown them. Care to help me?”

“No, I think you’re pissed enough for the both of us.” Natalie laughed.

Natalie eventually got Mya settled down in the living room. She fell asleep somewhere around three quarters of the way through bottle two. Natalie covered her with a blanket, and left a large glass of water and a blister pack of Brufen on the table next to her, before slipping out the door. Her friend was going to be in a world of hurt in the morning.

As she rode in the cab back to her flat, she thought about what Mya had told her. Now she just had to decide whether to push Mya to reconcile with her first love or not.

___________________________________________________

Mya and Henry had talked everyday since their first meeting. Mya noticed him a lot more now that she knew his name. They had two classes together, French and Algebra. He was much better in French than she was, but his math, no scratch that maths (she tried every opportunity to say things the way her peers did. It didn’t keep them from sniggering at her accent, but she knew never to make the mistake again) skills left something to be desired.

Mya watched all 3 of her roommates pack their bags to go home for the weekend. Only Rose had said goodbye to her. Mya thought maybe she and Rose could be friends, if the girl gave her a chance. It was almost eerie in the dorm hall with so few girls there. She had dinner with the house mother, and 3 other girls who were all foreign students.

Mya and Henry had arranged to meet at the door to her dorm, before they got a ride into the town to go to the cinema. They were going to see some teen horror movie. Mya didn’t dislike horror movies, but she wasn’t a huge fan of them either.

Mya loved spending time with Henry and Charlie. They were funny, and really down to earth boys. The three of them spent the entire term break together, playing video games, and board games, and watching movies in Henry’s dorm’s common room; he wasn’t allowed in Mya’s dorm. By the time everyone came back from break, Mya felt like she’d finally made a friend. 

When the rest of the student body returned, Charlie didn’t hang out with them anymore. He had his own friends, but he always said hi to Mya whenever he saw her. Mya still spent most of her afternoons in the Library, but now Henry sat with her and they studied together.

One day Mya was changing to go to the Library, when Melody, one of her roommates, the one who showed her the most obvious disregard, came in. “Where do you go everyday? You’re never around here.”

“I go to the Library. I work on my homework with my friend Henry. He’s helping me with my French, and I help him with Algebra.” Mya said, hoping maybe Melody would invite her to stay there one afternoon.

“Henry who? There’s like 15 Henrys in our year.”

“Henry Cavill,” Mya clarified.

“Fat Cavill? You’re friends with Fat Cavill?” Melody asked with obvious disdain in her voice.

“He’s nice. We were both here for term break, so we spent a lot of time together.”

“So are you dating him?” Melody asked. 

Mya wasn’t sure why this girl, who had barely said more than 10 words to her any day since she’d arrived at this school, was suddenly interested in her life. “No, we’re just friends.”

Melody didn’t respond, but her face told Mya she didn’t believe her. Mya didn’t say anything else, just finished getting her things and left. Mya thought about Melody’s question all the way to the library. When she thought about Henry, she got warm fuzzy feelings inside, but she didn’t feel anything romantic for him. Did she? No, he was just Henry.

By the time Christmas term break rolled around, Mya and Henry were as close as friends could be. Mya’s roommates had warmed up to her a little bit, and they were at least on friendly terms, if not friends yet. Mya was relieved that her father’s last letter included details of how she was getting to the house in Hampstead for Christmas. She was to take a cab to the train station, then the train to London, and Mrs. Bates would collect her at the station.

Mya’s nerves only increased the closer she got to London. She hadn’t seen her father since September, and she’d never met or even spoken to Miriam, her father’s new girlfriend. She didn’t know what to expect, and it was her first Christmas without her mother. 

Mrs. Bates met her with a wide smile on her friendly face. She enveloped Mya in a hug so like her mother’s she wanted to cry. “Welcome home! I want you to tell me all about the term.”

Mya told Mrs. Bates all about Henry and her roommates, and her classes at school. When they arrived to the house, her father was already home. He was sitting in his study reading the paper, while a blonde woman in trousers and a sweater typed on a laptop at the table nearby. 

Miriam was friendly to Mya, in the way you were friendly to someone you knew you wouldn’t have to spend much time with. While she wasn’t cold to Mya, she definitely wasn’t the warm comforting presence her mom had been. Her father did manage to take his attention away from his paper long enough to give her a half-hearted hug. He’d never been overly affectionate, but Mya had expected a bit more after being separated for more than three months. 

Mya spent much of that first Christmas break alone, wishing she could go back to school. She missed Henry. She missed her house mother Mrs. Moffat. She even missed her roommates. On Christmas Day, Mya unwrapped a personal computer. She spent several hours setting everything up, and getting it connected to the World Wide Web. The first thing she did was message Henry.

________________________________________________

Mya awoke on Saturday morning with a severe cramp in her neck from sleeping at an odd angle on her couch. Her mouth felt like cotton wool, and her eyes like sandpaper. She saw the glass of water and Brufen that Natalie must have left there. She smiled at her friend’s thoughtfulness, then cringed, knowing she’d dumped her entire romantic history with Henry onto her last night. Luckily she had until Tuesday to decide how she was going to settle this issue with her friend. 

Henry arrived at the hospital around mid-morning on Monday. He was determined to see Mya and talk to her, even if it meant waiting all day for her to come back to her office. He checked in at the front desk, and made his way to Mya’s office. The door was closed when he arrived. He knocked, but received no response. He knocked a bit louder, but still no response.

“She’s not in on Mondays,” he heard from down the hallway on his left. It was the woman from Friday. He wracked his brain to come up with her name. Natalie. She said she was Mya’s best friend.

“What do you mean?” He asked walking toward her.

“She usually takes the Sunday shift then doesn’t work on Monday to make up for it.”

“But she will be in tomorrow?” He asked hopefully.

“She will,” the woman supplied, “but I’m not sure she’s going to want to talk to you. Especially here. She’s a very private person, but you should know that better than anyone,” she said pointedly.

“What can I do? I want to talk to her. I want to apologize for how we left things. I want her back in my life, in whatever capacity that may be. Can you help me?”

“No, Henry Cavill. I’m not going to help you. I’m not going to tell you that she goes running most mornings from her house through Hyde Park, around the Serpentine, around 6:00. I’m also not going to tell you that she starts from her house in South Kensington.”

“Running. Morning. Hyde Park. Thank you Natalie,” he said, flashing his movie star smile, before turning away.

“Remember who didn’t tell you that information,” she called down the hallway after him. Mya might kill her, but she knew her friend needed to deal with her Henry Cavill demons one way or another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd love to hear your thoughts. Comments make me all warm and fuzz inside.


	4. Papaya

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just as amazed as you are that I've updated again so quickly! But with Christmas coming at the end of the week, I doubt I'll have much time for writing.  
> Thank you to everyone who's joined me on this journey so far.

Mya checked the weather before deciding whether or not to take a coat on her morning run. London was having an unusual warm spell this week. She vetoed the jacket, deciding her long-sleeved shirt would be enough. She slipped her earbuds into her ears and started her running playlist. Robbie Williams blared into her ears as she started a quick walking pace toward Hyde Park. 

She’d been running this route for the better part of a year. She liked it. A quick walk through the neighborhood gave her a good warm-up as she approached the park, then a slower walk gave her a nice cool-down after running around the water in the park.

When she hit the park, she picked up her pace as Ed Sheeran sang to her about loving her shape. She fell into her rhythm quickly. She’d run this route so many times; she barely registered where she was going. She was approaching the halfway point of her run when she saw a figure ahead turn off of the road across the water, another runner, with a huge black and white dog. The man was running the same direction she was; she clocked her pace and his, noting that she would probably pass him somewhere around the Italian Gardens if they both continued at their current pace. 

The man must have slowed because Mya caught up to him much faster than she had anticipated. She knew she would pass him and opted for the side that didn’t have the massive dog. “On your left,” she called as she was coming up to overtake him. He turned his head at her call, and Mya stumbled; it was Henry. How? Why? She’d been running this route for almost a year, and now she had to run into Henry just days after seeing him for the first time in over a decade.

“Mya,” Henry said, smiling. Mya stopped dead in her tracks. Henry made about five more paces before stopping himself. He turned and walked back to where she stood, transfixed.

“What are you doing here, Henry?”

“I’m just taking Kal out for a morning run. It’s good to see you again, Mya; I’d really like to talk to you. Could we maybe get together tonight, after your shift at the hospital? Please, Mya.” His eyes pleaded with her to agree. His eyes had always been her favorite part of his very striking face. She could always tell what he was feeling by looking at his eyes. The rest of his face could be an impassive mask, but his eyes always gave him away. At least to her anyway. She looked in his eyes now and saw regret, apology, pleading, and just the slightest hint of confidence.

“Henry, I really don’t think that’s a good idea. Why don’t we just let the past stay in the past? I really have to be going,” she said, and even though she’d only run halfway around the lake, she turned to go back to the street crossing the water, wanting to put as much distance between herself and Henry as possible.

Mya was distracted all morning. She was thankful she wasn’t scheduled for any surgeries. Her brain wandered to thoughts of Henry. Maybe she should just meet him and let him say his peace, she could say hers, and they could part ways forever, but at least the air would be cleared. She was contemplating a new running route when the phone on her desk rang. “This is Doctor Delaney,” she answered on the fourth ring.

“Yes, Mya, we have a delivery down here at the front desk for you. It’s quite large. Would you be able to come get it?”

“Yes, I’ll be right down,” Mya responded, confused. She wasn’t expecting anything, and she wouldn’t have had it delivered to the hospital anyway. As she approached the reception desk, she saw an absolutely massive arrangement of flowers. Purple hyacinths, and white tulips, fought for space among yellow daffodils and greenery. 

“Is this what you were referring to?” She asked the ladies at the front desk.

“Yes, it is. I don’t know who he is, but honey, forgive him. There’s a card, but we didn’t read it. That’s the hardest thing we’ve ever done. We didn’t even know you were seeing anyone.”

Mya looked among the green filler for the card, “I’m not. I have no idea who sent these.”

“If he sent you flowers like this and you’re not dating yet, girl, get on that. He’s definitely a keeper.”

Mya carried the enormous arrangement back to her office. She didn’t know who sent them, but she had a sneaking suspicion. Natalie was just returning to her office when Mya was trying to get her door unlocked. “Can you help me, please? I can’t get the door open, and these things weigh a dang ton.”

“Who sent you flowers?” Natalie asked though she suspected it was Henry.

“I don’t know, I haven’t read the card yet,” Natalie said, shaking her arms after relieving them of the weight of the flowers.

“Well, open it. They’re gorgeous. And whoever they’re from must be pretty sorry,” Natalie commented.

“People send flowers for other reasons than to say sorry, Nat,” Mya responded.

“But these all mean sorry,” Natalie pointed to each flower she named. “White tulips mean forgiveness, yellow daffodils, apology, purple hyacinths apology. Whoever it is is REALLY sorry about something,” she explained.

Mya opened the card. It only had four words on it—Margeaux 7:00 Please, Henry.

“They’re from him. They’re from Henry,” Mya said, looking up from the card to Natalie.

“What does he say?”

“It just says the name of a restaurant, 7:00, please, and then he signed it.”

“Wow, that’s pretty presumptuous of him. Are you going to go?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t tell you, but I saw him this morning on my run. He was out running with his dog on my running route. Today of all days.”

“Oh, my. That is weird. That you would run into him again so soon.” Natalie responded.

“Ok, what’s that about? You’re doing that thing with your face. What aren’t you telling me?”

“What do you mean. I’m not, not telling you anything,” Natalie said defensively.

“Natalie, I can tell when you’re lying. What’s going on?”

Natalie sighed; she should have known she couldn’t keep anything from Mya. “He came here yesterday. He was looking for you.”

“He came here yesterday? Thank god I don’t work Mondays.”

“That’s what I told him,” Natalie said but wouldn’t meet Mya’s eyes.

“What else did you tell him?”

“Nothing. I should really get back to my office.”

“Nat, what did you do?”

“I may have told him where you go running every morning. But I didn’t tell him where you live!” Natalie defended her actions.

“Natalie, how could you? You saw me on Friday night.”

“I did. And I think you need to face these demons head-on. I think you need to go to that restaurant tonight and talk to him. Let him say what he, apparently, so desperately wants to say, and you can tell him all the things you’ve wanted to tell him since you were 17. Mya, you owe it to yourself, to your 17-year-old self to, at the very least, get some closure.”  
“Fine. I’ll go. But when this ends disastrously, I’m blaming you.”

“Fair enough,” Natalie said, smiling.

________________________________________________________________

As Mya’s first year at Stowe came to an end, she thought about everything that had happened. She found a new best friend in Henry. Her roommates had eventually warmed up to her; she, Rose, Melody, and Martha were all going to room together the next year as well. She’d passed all of her classes and was even ranked in her year. But the most exciting thing that had happened is she had reached out to her grandparents in the US. 

She’d never met them; they’d disowned her mother when she got pregnant out of wedlock. But Mya found their names and address in her mother’s old address book. She wrote to them, and to her surprise, had heard back from them. They wanted to get to know her. They had exchanged letters for most of the spring, and they had even invited her to come to stay with them in New York. She’d asked her father’s permission, and he’d given it readily. Mya tried to pretend it wasn’t because she would be out of his hair for over a month, but she knew that was the reason. 

Even though everyone thought they were more than just friends, Henry and Mya were nothing but friends. He was a great listener and helped her work through her feelings about her father and her grandparents. She helped him with his homework and helped him run lines for the school play.

Mya was only at the house in Hampstead, she had a hard time calling it home, for three days before she was flying to New York. She’d never been, and it was exciting. She landed in the early afternoon and met her grandparents, who insisted she call them abuela and abuelo. They drove her to their apartment in Spanish Harlem. Mya had never been in such a gritty area. When they lived in Chicago, they’d lived in upper-middle-class Naperville, and Hampstead was definitely pretty posh. Her grandparents didn’t seem concerned, so she wasn’t either. 

Her abuela made them all dinner after Mya had settled into her mom’s old room. Sitting down at the table, Mya recognized her mother’s Arroz con Gandules (rice with beans), and it was served with fried plantains. Before they ate, they all joined hands and prayed. Mya hadn’t been raised in any sort of organized faith, but she was accustomed to praying before meals. Mya took one bite of the beans and rice, and her vision blurred with tears. Before she knew what was happening, she was sobbing uncontrollably.

“Mija, what’s wrong?” Her abuela asked.

“This tastes just like mom’s,” Mya said through her tears. Abuela stood up and hugged Mya tight. “I’m sure you miss your mama, Mija.”

Once her tears subsided, Mya could enjoy the rest of the dinner, which felt like coming home. She knew she’d made the right decision coming to meet her grandparents.

The next morning abuela woke Mya up to go to church, even though it was only Tuesday. They went to mass at a stunning chapel. The service lasted for almost two hours. Mya had never been to a service that went longer than an hour before, even on Christmas or Easter. After service, they returned to the apartment, and her abuela insisted she go to her room to pray. 

“What am I supposed to pray about?” Mya asked innocently.

“You pray that Jesus will save you from becoming like your mother, having babies when she’s not married, disobeying her parents, moving away to get a job. Pray that God has mercy on her soul.” Mya was so stunned at the words she was hearing she didn’t know how to respond. Where was the kind woman from last night, who’d held her as she cried over losing her mother? That same woman was now insulting her mother and, by extension her, the baby she’d gotten pregnant with outside of marriage.

That evening they went to another mass. The service lasted over 2 hours again. And again, when they got back to the apartment, her abuela made her go to her room to pray. Mya didn’t know what to do. But she knew she couldn’t do this for the whole month she was supposed to be here.

The next day went exactly the same. Two church services and prayer when she got home. Mya felt like her grandmother was trying to make her atone for her mother’s misdeeds.

Mya tried to reason with her abuela. “Abuela, I’m a good girl. I get straight As in school. I do all my chores at home. I even volunteer with my school. I’ve never even had a boyfriend.”

“You don’t need a boyfriend. You need Jesus. I know how your mother raised you with that man. I could tell as soon as you got here. You didn’t know any of the words to the mass. And you didn’t even know how to pray. By the time you leave here, you will have Jesus in your heart. When you have Jesus in your heart, you have no room for boys, boys who will seduce you and leave you pregnant.”

By the time Friday came, Mya couldn’t take anymore. After coming out of her room from “praying,” she hadn’t prayed at all except that first morning, she asked her abuela where the library was. Abuela thought that was an acceptable activity for Mya to do, so she gave her directions. Once she turned the corner, Mya took out the calling card her father had given her and calculated the time difference. She took the chance that her father would be home. He often didn’t work on Fridays.

“Dad? I don’t want to stay here. Abuelo and abuela are mean. All I’ve done since I got here is go to church and pray. I think they’re trying to punish me for what mom did.”

“Mya, this was your choice to go see them. You need to work this out for yourself. You’re not a little girl anymore.”

“So you’re not going to help me? Dad, please. I want to come home.”

“I’m sorry, Mya, but you made a commitment to be with your grandparents for the month, and I made plans assuming you wouldn’t be home. I don’t feel comfortable with you being here by yourself. You’re a strong girl. You can handle this,” he said stiffly before hanging up.

Mya stared at the receiver in her hand. Had her father really just said she couldn’t come home? Mya wandered the streets just trying to think about what she should do. She did have a credit card that her father had given her for emergencies. But she couldn’t go home; her father had made that clear. She wasn’t friendly enough with any of her roommates to ask them if she could come to stay.

The person she most wanted to talk to was Henry. He would know what she should do. Mya found the library, pleased that she hadn’t actually lied to abuela about where she was going. She signed up for some computer time and found the terminal she had been assigned.

She logged into Instant Messenger, hoping that Henry was online as well. It was 3:00 in the afternoon in Jersey. Mya sighed in relief when she saw his icon turn green.

Mya: Henners! Thank god you’re on. I hate it here.  
Henry: Mya! What’s wrong. I thought you’d be loving New York.  
Mya: My grandparents are horrible. All we’ve done is gone to church twice a day and pray. They keep making comments about me praying for my mom’s soul. And that I should pray hard, so I don’t end up like her.  
Henry: That’s horrible. Why don’t you call your father and tell him you’re coming home?  
Mya: I did. He said I couldn’t. He made other plans assuming I wouldn’t be home and doesn’t want me home alone. What am I going to do? I can’t stand another three weeks of this.  
Mya: Henners?  
Mya: Henry? Hellooooo? Are you there?  
Henry: Come here. I’ve talked to my mum, and she said you could stay with us for the month.  
Mya: Are you serious? I can come to stay with you?  
Henry: Yes. Mum said she’d love to have you stay.  
Mya: Henry, that’s amazing! Thank you! I’m not sure what I need to do to book my plane ticket, but I’ll email you all of my flight details when I get them made.  
Henry: I’ll be waiting. 

Mya signed-off of the messenger and went back to the circulation desk.

“What can I help you with now, dear?” The older woman sitting at the desk asked.

“I’m hoping you can help me. I have an airplane ticket. I need to change it. I need to fly back home earlier than I had originally planned. Do you know how I would do that?”

The older lady smiled, “I believe you can take your ticket to any travel agency and they’ll be able to help you. They might charge you a fee, but I don’t think it would be much, seeing as you already have the original flight booked.”

“Thank you. Do you know where the nearest travel agency would be?”

The woman gave Mya directions to an address about three blocks away. Mya walked back to her grandparents’ apartment. She managed to get in, get her return ticket and passport, and get out without being questioned. She noted the time; she didn’t want to be late for mass and make abuela angry.

Mya was surprised at how easily she changed her flight back to London and booked the subsequent flight to Jersey. The woman at the travel agency didn’t even look at the birthdate on her passport. She couldn’t get a flight until Monday, but that was ok with Mya. She knew she could last with her grandparents for two more days.

Monday morning, Mya woke early. She had her plan. Her flight wasn’t until the afternoon, so she had time to get to the airport after the morning service that she was sure her abuela would drag her to. After they returned from the morning service, her abuelo would be at work, and her abuela would go to the market while Mya “prayed.” She knew that was her chance to leave. She’d written a long letter, thanking them for their hospitality and apologizing for just leaving. She also explained that she hoped one day they could let go of their anger toward her mother and love her as their granddaughter.

Mya had only flown by herself once before, on her way to New York; she was nervous about navigating the airport by herself. But she managed with little problem. She landed in London on Tuesday morning and boarded her flight to Jersey five hours later.

Her nerves increased on the short flight to the little island. Had she made the wrong choice? Should she have stayed and tried to reason with her grandparents? Should she have told her father where she was going? Would he even care?

When she landed in Jersey and collected her bag, Mya walked out of the terminal and saw Henry, standing there with a sign with her name, standing next to a blonde woman she recognized as his mom, from visiting day.

She wrapped her arms around Henry, needing to feel his friendly touch.

“Mya, welcome to Jersey. When Henry told me about your predicament, I insisted you come to stay with us. I only hope you won’t be too bored while you’re here. It’s not as exciting as London or New York,” Henry’s mother welcomed her as they walked to their car.

“Thank you for having me, Mrs. Cavill. I’m very grateful.”

“You’re welcome, and please call me Marianne. Do you need to call your father and let him know that you’ve arrived safely?”

“Ummm,” Mya stammered.

“What’s wrong, honey?” Marianne asked.

“Ummm, he doesn’t know I’m here. He thinks I’m still with my grandparents in New York.”

“Mya!” Marianne scolded. “The first thing we’re doing when we get to the house is calling your father. He needs to know where you are. If I had known he didn’t know, I never would have agreed to this. Henry, did you know, her father didn’t know?”

“He didn’t care, mom. Her grandparents are super mean to her, and he didn’t care. He told her to handle it herself. So she did.”

“Henry William Dalgliesh Cavill. I don’t care how mean her grandparents were; she should have gotten her father’s permission to come here.”

“Sorry, mum,” Henry apologized.

Mya and Henry listened as Marianne spoke to Mya’s father, Oliver. “Yes, that’s correct, my son and your daughter are friends from Stowe. Apparently, she was viciously unhappy in New York and left there. For some reason, she didn’t think she could go home.”

They couldn’t hear Oliver’s side of the conversation, but from the look on Marianne’s face, she was not impressed.

“Mr. Delaney, I can assure you, I have zero intention of sending your daughter back to those people in New York, and if you won’t welcome her home until August, then I guess she will just stay here with us. Here is our phone number and address,” she rambled off the information, “should you decide to contact her. I will have my husband contact you as well when he gets home; until then, good day,” she said and hung up the phone violently. 

“Mya, I’m sorry to say this, but your father is a very unpleasant man. I can see why you didn’t want to go home.”

“It’s not that I didn’t want to; it’s that he said I couldn’t. He has plans with his girlfriend. I think they’re going to the house in Italy.”

“Well, Mya, welcome to our home. You are welcome to stay as long as you like. Or until term starts again.”

“Thank you, Marianne. I have a ticket back to London in two and a half weeks. Thank you. Can I see where I’m going to sleep? I’m kind of tired from my flights. I couldn’t sleep on the plane.”

“Certainly dear, why don’t you take a nap, and Henry will wake you for dinner. Henry, show her to her room. I made up the bed in the room across from yours.”

Mya napped peacefully until dinner. Her jet lag kept trying to pull her back under, but she managed to make it through dinner with Henry’s parents and the two of his brothers that were still at home. Charlie, who Mya had already met, was two years younger than her and Henry, and Simon, who was four years older than her and Henry. He was only home for about a month while he sorted everything out to move to London.

During that first week in Jersey, Marianne made sure Henry took her to see all the sights. One day they visited an outdoor market. Mya loved cooking and loved to see all the fresh ingredients and sample them too. They strolled down one of the aisles and came to a stand that had exotic fruits. 

“Oooh! Papaya! I love papaya. My mother loved papaya, but it was so hard to find in Chicago. So anytime we got it, it was a special treat.” Mya asked the man at the stand for a papaya to be cut up, so she could eat it while they finished strolling the market.

Mya savored every bite of the juicy tropical fruit. Each time she took a bite, she made an involuntary “mmm” noise. Henry couldn’t keep himself from laughing.

“What?” Mya asked defensively.

“Nothing, Papaya, Mya Papaya,” Henry laughed at his rhyming.

“Really? Is that going to become a thing now?”

“Oh, it’s definitely a thing now, Mya Papaya.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't want this chapter to be extra long, so there's still more of Mya and Henry's first summer together, but that will have to come in Chapter 5. I love to read your comments, hearing what you think about the story, Mya, Henry, their relationship, such as it is at this point...
> 
> By the way, I also have an Instagram PatriciaBurtnessWrites There you can get updates about when I post, as well as see my face claims for Mya, Natalie, and Stefano.


	5. Clearing the Air

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just as surprised as you are that this chapter is up less than a week after the last one! Apparently when I'm not stressed to the max about everything, I can be creative!

“Hey Simon, can I talk to you?” Henry asked, knocking on his older brother’s bedroom door.

“Sure Hank, come in. What do you need?’ Simon asked; he could see his little brother was obviously worried about something. 

“So, you know how Mya,” Henry started.

“Your girlfriend,” Simon supplied.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Henry said defensively. “But, what if I want her to be?”

“Oh,” Simon exhaled, the realization dawning on him what his brother was saying. “Well, Hank, do you think she feels the same way?”

“I don’t know. The amount I know about girls couldn’t fill a thimble. But she’s not like any other girl I’ve ever known. She’s my best friend.”

Simon looked at his younger brother for several beats, trying to decide what would be the best advice to give. His brother may not know how Mya felt about him, but Simon did. He noticed the way she looked at him. Even if she wasn’t aware of how she felt. Mya Papaya had more than just friendly feelings for his brother.

“Well, brother, I think your best bet would be to tell her how you feel. Make it something special, don’t just blurt it out while you’re playing video games,” Simon cautioned.

Henry nodded as though his brother had just imparted some sort of ancient wisdom to him. “But what if she doesn’t like me back?”

“Well, Hank, I don’t think that’s the case, but if it is, then it’s important that you don’t try to make her feel guilty about not liking you like that. She’s entitled to her feelings just like you are yours.”

“But if she doesn’t like me back, how are we going to stay friends once I’ve told her how I feel?”

“That’s for you two to sort out, Hank. But I think you should tell her.”

“Thanks Si,” Henry said before walking out of the room.

The following evening, after dinner, Henry drove Mya to the beach. Mya loved to watch the water; she said it made her feel at peace. He parked the car, and they started down the path to the secluded beach. A rocky outcrop sat at one end of the short stretch of sand. They walked toward it silently. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence for Mya, but Henry’s mind whirled a mile a minute. He replayed over and over the words he wanted to say. 

They chose a spot on the rocks, staring out at the sea, watching the waves roll in. 

“Papaya?” Henry asked.

“Henners?” Mya responded playfully.

He tried to call upon every romantic hero he’d read about or seen in a film or television series. He wanted to be smooth and confident, but instead blurted, “I like you.”

“I like you too, Henry. That’s why you’re my best friend,” Mya responded, not understanding his confession.

“No, I mean, I like you. You’re my best friend, but I’ve also imagined what it would be like to kiss you,” he stuttered awkwardly.

“Oh? Oh. Oh! Henry? Really?” Mya was wholly taken aback by his words. He was her best friend. The person she was closest to in the world. He knew just about everything about her. And he wanted to…

After several seconds that felt like hours to Henry, he babbled, “Oh, god. Forget I said anything. Let’s just go back to the car,” he said, standing.

Mya, lost in her thoughts, didn’t hear his comment. Her brain was working overtime. Henry, her best friend, liked her. He imagined kissing her. Did she like him? Did she want to kiss him? A smile crept across her face as she realized she wanted to kiss him too. She looked over to Henry, only to discover he wasn’t sitting next to her anymore. He was half-way across the beach, walking away from her.

She ran to catch up to him. “Henry! Where are you going?” She called when she’d almost reached him.

“Let’s just forget what I said, and.” His words were cut off by Mya clamping her hands on his shoulders and pressing her lips to his. It was an awkward kiss, their teeth collided at one point, but to Henry, it was the most incredible kiss of all time.

__________________________________________________________

Henry thought about that first kiss. He almost blushed, thinking about how awkward it could have been if it had been anyone but Mya. Their second kiss was much better. He remembered those kisses on that beach more vividly than he did just about anything else from his childhood. 

Now he sat in a cafe, waiting on that same girl. The girl he’d left behind. The first girl he’d loved. He’d messed up with her. He was determined to fix things between them. His message in the flowers had said 7:00. He’d arrived at the chic little restaurant at 6:30. It was now 7:10. Was she even coming? Was he stupid to think she’d come? She’d made it pretty clear she didn’t want to talk to him, but her friend had encouraged him to try, but was that the wrong move? 7:15 came, and he started to lose hope when he looked up from his drink and saw her walking toward him. 

She looked amazing. So far, he’d seen her twice, once in her scrubs, the second in running gear, but tonight she’d curled her hair to float around her shoulders. She wore a sweater in deep burgundy that looked like it would feel like butter in his hands. Her slim jeans accentuated her figure. Her shoes, a violent shade of cobalt, gave her another five inches of height. Henry was transfixed. The slightly awkward teenage girl he’d known had turned into a stunning, sophisticated woman.

She sat down across from him at the small table. “Mya, you look amazing.”

“Thank you. I wasn’t sure I was actually coming until I opened the door. But I guess I figured if I let you say your peace, maybe I would stop “accidentally” running into you.”

“Well, thank you for coming. I,” his sentence was cut off by the waitress taking their order. “Mya, can we talk about what happened all those years ago?”

“I’d love to. But you’re going to have to tell me first. We were young. You told me you loved me. You left, and I never heard from you again.” She sat back in her chair and crossed her arms across her chest, willing him to explain his side.

“Mya, I’m sorry. When I left, I fully believed I would come back to you, to our relationship. You were busy preparing for exams. And I was working on the film. We emailed a few times, but email was sketchy back then where we were filming, so I sent the postcards. I was actually writing you a third card when one of the other actors saw me writing. He asked who I was writing to. I said my girlfriend. He gave me this long speech about how I didn’t want to be tied down to my high school girlfriend. How being with someone would only drag me down. That it might hurt my chances at getting other parts. You remember how insecure I was back then. You were the only girl I’d ever been with, the only girl I’d kissed. He had me convinced that I needed more life experience. I didn’t want to interfere with your exams, so I put off talking to you, and eventually, I just lost track of you. I did try your old email address, but it came back.”

“Mya_Papaya, didn’t look really professional on college applications,” she smiled. “So what you’re saying is you let yourself get manipulated by some bitter bachelor type who didn’t know you, didn’t know us and had no idea about our relationship?”

“When you put it that way, it sounds even worse. Mya, I’m sorry. I know it hurt you, doing what I did. My biggest regret in life is how things ended between us.”

“Hearing your story does take away some of the hurt. Teenagers are so easily manipulated by those that are older than them. But Henry, do you realize what you did? You abandoned me, just like everyone else. It took me many years in therapy to realize I have abandonment issues. Not from you,” she was quick to clarify, “but everyone I’ve ever loved has left me. My mom died. My father, while he’s still alive, hasn’t really ever been IN my life. My grandparents only wanted to use me to make me atone for my mother’s perceived sins, and you. In today’s terms, you ghosted me. It took me a long time to get over that betrayal. But it was many years ago. I’ve grown since then, and so have you, so I am willing to tell you all is forgiven. I hold no grudge against you.”

Henry’s shoulders visibly dropped in relief. She forgave him. He hadn’t messed up the best relationship he’d ever had. He wasn’t sure where he wanted this to go yet. Obviously, he wanted his friend back, but seeing her had reawoken all the feelings he had at 17. He was no longer a hormonal teenager, but looking at her now, he might as well be. He knew he needed to play this cool. She had just forgiven him. It was too much to think she’d jump back into a relationship with him. 

“Mya, can we start over? I’ve missed having you in my life.”

“Henry, I don’t know. I’m sure we’ve both changed so much in the last 15 years. What’s to say we’d even like each other anymore?”

“I think we owe it to ourselves to give it a try,” Henry urged.

“Let’s start with this dinner and see how that goes,” Mya suggested.

“Ok,” Henry agreed, smiling.

Mya wasn’t sure what she’d been nervous about. They found so many things to talk about. She told him about her days at Oxford with Natalie. He told her about his early days in Los Angeles, sleeping on sofas and waiting tables.

Their dinner plates had been cleared over an hour ago, but Mya and Henry continued to sit at the table and talk. Mya was on her third glass of wine.

“You know, even as upset as I was with you, I was still proud of you when you started making it big. I’ve seen all your movies. You really did it. Not many people get to live their dreams.”

Henry warmed at her confession. His Mya Papaya was still in there somewhere. “What about you? When did you switch to medicine? I know your father was pushing you to be a barrister. What changed?”

“You. I saw what being a barrister had done to him, and I didn’t want to be like him. And I saw you go off to live your dream, so I took some classes and found I really liked medicine. It took me a while, several rotations, to pick a speciality, but I love working with the kids. They could be going through the scariest part of their lives, in intense pain, but they’re still just kids and want what all kids want. It was a struggle those early days to get my father to see I didn’t want to be a barrister. But luckily, if I wasn’t destined for the law, medicine was an acceptably respectable field.”

“You’re certainly a hero to little James. He raved about you before you came in that day, while we were playing video games.”

Mya’s response was interrupted by their waitress. “I’m sorry, sir, madam, but we’re closing.”

They said quick apologies to the young woman, Henry paid the bill, after some protest from Mya, and they left the restaurant.

“Mya, this was really great. I’ve missed being able to talk to you. Can we do this again, soon?”

Mya’s face showed her apprehension before she responded, “how about Thursday night? Meet me at 7:00 at this club.” She handed him a card of the club Stefano worked at. 

“Thursday? I’d love to. Could I have your phone number? I’d like to keep talking to you if that’s ok.” Henry felt like a teenager on his first date, again. He’d had no shortage of female companionship, but something about Mya brought out his nerves.

Mya wrote her number on the back of the card. “I’ll see you on Thursday then.” 

There was an awkward pause between the two of them, not quite sure how to leave things. A kiss was much too personal, but a handshake was too formal. Henry took a chance and opened his arms for a hug, his eyes questioning. 

Mya surprised herself by leaning into his big frame and wrapping her arms around him. He’d changed so much from the soft teenager boy he’d been. He was all man now, and Mya was having a hard time not noticing how strong his muscles felt under her hands, how good his cologne smelled, how safe she suddenly felt in his arms.

After what felt like much too long, and not long enough, Mya pulled away from his embrace. “I’ll see you Thursday, Henners,” she said, hailing a passing cab.

He opened the door to the car for her, “yes, you will, Papaya.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 6 is on the way as well, unless something happens, expect it within the next couple of days!
> 
> Do you have any questions? What do you think? Would you have forgiven Henry? Or would you have made him grovel a bit more?


	6. Drinks with Friends

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a lovely surprise isn't it? Enjoy Chapter 6, I have no idea when Chapter 7 might be coming.

“I have to know! Did you go to dinner? Did you have dinner? Did you throw a drink in his face? Did you sleep with him? What happened?!” Natalie pounced on Mya the second she got to the hospital on Wednesday morning.

“Good morning to you too, Natalie,” Mya said with a smile.

“Out with it, Delaney. What happened last night?”

Mya took her time hanging up her coat, sitting down at her desk, and booting up her computer. Finally, feeling her friend had suffered enough, she met her gaze. “I did go to the restaurant. I didn’t throw a drink in his face or sleep with him. We talked, he explained his side of the story, and I told him I forgave him; we had a lovely dinner, and I went home,” Mya said, knowing how much it would kill Natalie to not have all the details.

“So what’s happening? Are you friends? Are you dating? Are you going to sleep with him?” Natalie peppered Mya with more questions.

“What is your obsession with me sleeping with Henry?” Mya laughed.

“Hello! Have you seen him? Why aren’t you obsessed with sleeping with him? And you didn’t answer my questions,” Natalie demanded.

“Maybe I’m not obsessed with sleeping with him because I already have. And honestly, it wasn’t great.”

Natalie’s mouth gaped. “You already slept with him? When? What do you mean by it wasn’t great?”

Mya laughed at her friend’s disappointed face. “We were 17; he was staying with his brother in London for the summer.”

“That doesn’t count; those first teenage times. That’s mostly just fumbling around in the dark, hoping you don’t get caught. Now answer my question. What is happening between you two?”

“I don’t know. We’re meeting for drinks on Thursday, at the club Stefano works at. Please say you can join us. Other than that, I don’t know. He didn’t try to kiss me or anything last night, but we did hug. And oh! Natalie, hugging him was nothing like hugging the boy I used to know. It was all I could do to not have my hands literally everwhere.”

“Ok, first of all, yes, I will be there; I’ll see if Stef is working or not, he may not want to go in if he’s not scheduled. Second, you’re a much stronger woman than I am. My hands would have been on that bum without a second thought. Third, what do you want? Do you want to be just friends? Or are you maybe looking to get involved with him again? I’m sure his bedroom technique has improved.”

“Honestly, Nat, I don’t know what I want. I guess I’ve got some thinking to do between now and then,” Mya confessed.

“Yes, you do,” Natalie smirked, leaving her friend alone in her office.

The following night Mya stared at her closet. What should she wear? Did she want this to be a date? Was it just friends getting together for a drink? What if she was completely misreading the signs? What if he legitimately just wanted them to be friends again? “I could always force his hand,” Mya thought aloud to her closet. “If I wear something sexy and he doesn’t try to make a move, I’ll know he just wants to be friends. If he tries something, then I’ll know. But do I want him to try something?” Mya often found that talking through her problems out loud could help her make her decision.

As she dressed, she thought about her first official date with Henry.  
________________________________________________________________

Mya returned to London from Jersey happier than she’d been since before her mom died. She practically floated back to the house in Hampstead from the airport.

Mrs. Bates met her with a hug when she opened the door. 

“Welcome home, Mya! Here, let me take your case. I’ll get your laundry started. You’ll have a quick turn around, I expect.”

“What do you mean quick turn around?” Mya asked the retreating form of her housekeeper. Mrs. Bates turned and pointed to the table in the front hall. “Your father left you a note on the table, just there. He also asked that you call him when you get home. The number is in the note,” she finished, then bustled off to do Mya’s laundry.

Mya picked up the note from her father. She opened the envelope and unfolded the paper.

Mya,  
I would like you to join me at the house in Lake Cómo when you get home. I understand you may want to rest from your travels, so I’ve made the flight reservations for tomorrow. If you’d like to bring a friend, you may. I’ve included a second ticket; you’ll need to add her name to the ticket when you get to the airport. If your friend’s parents need to talk to me, I’ve included the number to Villa Delaney at the bottom of this page. Please call me when you get this. I have news for you.  
Father

Mya read the letter two more times. She was going to Italy, and she could bring a friend. That was exciting. She wondered if her father would let her bring Henry. The house in Italy was big enough. Or maybe she should invite Rose. Rose had always been nice to her, even before Martha and Melody had warmed up to her. She thought through her options as she dialed the Italian phone number.

“Ciao, Villa Delaney, this is Oliver,” her father answered the phone, sounding more casual than she’d ever heard him before.

“Hi dad, it’s me,” Mya responded.

“Mya, lovely to hear from you. You must have gotten my letter, along with the airplane tickets. Have you given any thought to which of your friends you’d like to bring?”

“I have a couple in mind,” Mya said.

“Well, whoever you decide will be fine, I’m sure. I just didn’t want you to be by yourself when you’re here. The reason I asked you to call me is that I have an announcement. Miriam and I are engaged and will be married here at the villa next week. If you don’t have a suitable dress, Mrs. Bates will take you shopping to find one. And tell your friend to bring suitable clothing for a wedding,” her father announced.

“You’re getting married? You haven’t even known this woman a year.”

“Miriam and I are a good match. We’re getting married next week, and I’m expecting you to be there and dressed appropriately. Mya, you are my daughter, and this is important to me. Can you be happy for me?” Mya had never heard her father speak like that before. He sounded human, with real emotion.

“Of course I’ll be there, dad. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“I will have a car collect you at the airport tomorrow when you land. I will see you then, Mya.”

Mya hung up the phone, confused. Her father was getting married. He asked her to be there. He didn’t demand, which was very unlike him. She knew she should be supportive, but if she was going to be supportive, she would need support herself.

She called Henry’s house, talking to Marianne first, asking her if Henry could come to Italy with her for two weeks. Marianne had agreed when she heard the whole story. Henry agreed almost before she got the entire question out. That’s how Mya found herself sitting next to her boyfriend on a flight to Italy. Her father was accustomed to traveling in style and had booked them first-class tickets. On such a short flight, less than two hours, there wasn’t much difference between First and Economy, but Mya enjoyed the flight.

Once they arrived in Italy, Mya’s nerves started. She hadn’t seen her father in over a month, and now she was here in Italy, for his wedding, with her boyfriend. “Henry, let’s not tell my father about us. He’ll get all weird and probably try to keep us apart. I’m not going to lie if he asks directly, but he’s never asked me a personal question in my life.”

“I’ll let you lead on this dance,” Henry said, smiling.

Mya watched the Italian countryside fly by. She’d only been to the house in Bellagio once before, the summer before her mom died. Her father had bought it as an investment, and they’d spent most of the summer there. Mya had loved the house right on the water. 

Her father surprised her by greeting her with a hug. She could remember less than ten times in her life that her father had hugged her. Mya introduced Henry as the boy she’d stayed with in Jersey, her best friend. Her father looked skeptical but didn’t ask any further questions.

Miriam also greeted Mya with a hug. Mya had spent less than two weeks with the woman who was set to become her step-mother. She hadn't struck Mya as an overly affectionate woman, but maybe now that she was marrying Mya’s father, she wanted to be a family.

Henry’s room was right next to Mya’s. They shared a balcony. After they both went to bed, they snuck out to the balcony to watch the lights on the lake and make out a little.

Mya spent their first full day exploring Bellagio and the lake with Henry. They took a boat tour and strolled through the little towns dotting the shore of the lake. After their day to acclimate, they were swept up in the preparations for the wedding. Each day they were given a list of tasks and were sent off with a credit card to complete them.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful. It was a small affair with about 20 guests that had flown in for the occasion. The reception afterward was a lively Italian affair with lots of wine and music. Mya and Henry were even allowed a glass of champagne each to join in the celebration.

The morning after the wedding, Mya went to breakfast and saw a stack of suitcases by the door.

“Dad, are we leaving? I thought we were staying another week.”

“Miriam and I are leaving on our honeymoon. We’re taking ten days to tour Italy, before flying back to London. I booked your tickets so you’d have an extra week here for vacation. That’s why I let you bring a friend, so you wouldn’t be alone this week.”

“But Dad, I’ve barely gotten to see you at all, not just this week, but since we moved to London. Either you’re always at work, or I’m away at school. I thought this was going to be some time for us to spend together,” Mya said, tears starting to gather in her eyes.

“Mya, I just got married; it would be selfish to deprive my new bride of a honeymoon. We’ll discuss this when I get back to London,” her father said sternly. Mya ran back to her bedroom, tears streaming down her cheeks. Henry heard her come back and entered her room through the open balcony door. He gathered her in his arms, letting her cry out her frustration and hurt.

Mya managed to compose herself long enough to see her father and Miriam off, feeling a bit lost about what she should do now.

“Papaya, can I take you on a date tonight? Like a real date, where we both get dressed up and go to dinner.”

Mya smiled; Henry always knew how to cheer her up. “I’d like that.”

They passed the day swimming in front of the villa and sunning themselves on the rocks.

Mya agonized over what to wear. She felt silly for worrying; Henry had already seen basically everything she owned. But she wanted tonight to be special. They hadn’t had an actual date yet. They’d spent just about every waking moment together for the last month but hadn’t ever had an actual date.

Mya took special care with her hair and makeup. She didn’t usually wear it, because the school forbade it during class times. But she’d seen plenty of magazines with tips about perfect makeup application.

At precisely 6:30, Henry knocked on her bedroom door. She gave herself one last look in the mirror, admiring her spaghetti strap dress. She grabbed a scarf to wrap around her shoulders if she got cold and her mini purse before opening the door. Henry had paired his khaki dress trousers with a button-down shirt and tie. 

“Mya, you look beautiful,” Henry said, offering her his arm.

“Thank you. You too. Look very handsome, I mean,” Mya blurted.

They walked from the villa into the heart of the small town. Henry had made reservations for them.

The waiter offered them wine and didn’t check their IDs. Between the two of them, they finished the bottle. Mya remembered it as being the most perfect dinner ever. They stumbled back to the villa after dinner. After a kiss goodnight at her bedroom door, Mya sighed against the inside of the closed door. She tipsily took off her makeup and got ready for bed. 

Once she’d changed into her pajamas, she stepped out onto the balcony to see if Henry was there. Just like every night previous, he was. He was sitting on one of the balcony chairs, staring out over the water. Mya ambled over and gingerly sat in his lap.

He kissed her like he’d never kissed her before. Mya could feel his passion in the kiss. She responded in kind. She buried her fingers in his curls as he claimed her mouth.

They broke apart, gasping for air. Henry looked her directly in the eyes, his hands cradling her face. “Mya, I love you.”

Mya hadn’t heard those words since her mother had passed. Her eyes welled with tears for the second time that day. “Henry, I love you too,” she cried, kissing him once more, before laying her head on his shoulder and weeping. 

They must have fallen asleep together in the chair because the next thing Mya knew, it was the morning, and her head felt like a marching band was practicing drills, while her mouth felt like the Sahara. Even feeling as awful as she did, she smiled. Henry loved her. She was happy.

_________________________________________________________________

Natalie met Mya at her house, and they shared a taxi out to Camden. Due to traffic, they were a couple of minutes late getting to the club. When they entered, they spotted Henry sitting by himself at the bar. Stefano stood further down the bar, talking to the bartender. Natalie greeted Stefano with an enthusiastic kiss, while Mya tapped Henry on the shoulder. He smiled when he saw her. She brought him over to Natalie and Stef.

“Henry, this is my best friend, Natalie Parker, and her boyfriend Stefano Vitale,” Mya introduced them.

“Yes, Natalie and I have met. It’s a pleasure to see you again, Natalie,” he said, kissing her on the cheeks before turning to Stefano. He extended his hand, and the handsome Italian took it. 

They each got their first drinks and claimed a group of leather seats in a quiet corner of the club. Henry was thankful to have his drink when Mya took off her brown leather jacket. The shirt she had on under it was cut low through her cleavage. His mouth went dry as he tried not to stare at her bosom.

Mya was surprised that their drinks were never empty the entire night. Anytime one of their drinks were low, Stef would raise his hand, and a server would bring a fresh drink. The conversation flowed between the four like they’d been friends for years.

When it came time for Mya to leave, Henry stood to go as well. The bartender called a cab for them before they enquired about their tab. “No, tonight it's on me,” Stefano announced.

“You don’t have to do that, Stefano,” Mya insisted.

“Nonsense. This is my place; you don’t pay while you’re here.” Mya and Henry each insisted twice more, but their protests fell on deaf ears. Eventually, they gave up and bid their goodbyes to Stefano and Natalie.

They were both going to South Kensington, so they shared a cab. On the way back, Mya remarked, “it was really nice of Stef to pay, but I’m sure that tab was most of his paycheck for the month.”

“What do you mean paycheck? It’s his place. He doesn’t get a paycheck.” Henry asked.

“What are you talking about?” Mya asked, confused.

“When you and Natalie went to the bathroom, he asked how I liked his club. It’s his place. He owns it. That’s why the staff was so accommodating.”

“I thought he was just a bartender!”

“I’m sure he fills in if he needs to; he’s the owner and manager,” Henry concluded.

‘Natalie told me he was a bartender. I wonder if she even knows.”

“I’m sure she does. They make a good couple, I think. They have similar energies.”

“You mean they’re both ridiculously good looking.”

“Well, that too. Speaking of which,” his voice dropped several octaves, “you, Mya Papaya, are looking particularly gorgeous tonight.” Mya felt goosebumps rise all over her body at his words, spoken in such a tone so close to her ear. “I guess that answers that question,” Mya thought to herself.

“How kind of you to notice,” Mya replied coyly.

“Mya, I’ve noticed everything about you since that first summer in Jersey,” Henry said, eying her mouth as he spoke.

“Henry,” Mya started but was cut off by the cab pulling up in front of her house, “this is my stop,” she said, opening the door and exiting the cab.

“I’m going to walk her to her door, please wait here,” Henry told the driver.

Henry accompanied Mya. She fidgeted with her keys as they mounted the three steps to the door.

“Thank you for tonight. It was lovely,” Mya said, suddenly nervous.

“Mya, I’d love to go out on an actual date. Would you let me take you on a date?”

Mya smiled brightly, “I’d like that, Henry.”

“Mya, I’d really like to kiss you good night,” Henry confessed.

Mya didn’t respond. She simply raised on her toes. His brain registered her movements and reacted accordingly. He bent lower to meet her mouth halfway. His arms wrapped around her torso, feeling her lithe figure under that shirt that had been driving him insane all night. His tongue ran along the seam of her lips, parting them ever so slightly, requesting admittance to the wonders behind them. She allowed him one luxurious sweep of his tongue before she tilted her head away, breaking the kiss.

Henry’s head was swimming as he heard her say, “Good night, Henry,” as she unlocked the door and disappeared behind it. He stood dazed for another second before smirking as he walked back to the waiting cab. 

Inside, Mya leaned against her front door, her heart racing. “He’s definitely gotten better at that since we were 17,” she thought aloud, touching her fingertips to her lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all your kind words. They really mean the world to me. I love to hear your thoughts on Mya and Henry's story.
> 
> If you like Henry stories, go check out Carried Away, my other story that is completed! (well, I occasionally add extra epilogues, but the main story is done)
> 
> And check out my author Instagram PatriciaBurtnessWrites


	7. New Beginnings

Mya didn’t turn on her music during her run on Friday morning. Her thoughts were more than enough to occupy her mind while she ran. Was she starting a relationship with Henry again? Sure he’s gorgeous, he’d been attractive when they were 17, and he’d definitely grown into his looks. She knew she was attracted to him. But what about him, as a person.

Mya had never had a problem with who Henry was as a person. He’d always been kind, and sweet, and generous both with his affections and his time. She wanted to believe he was still like that, but she knew the film industry had a reputation for beating that out of people.

And what about her? She was definitely not the same girl she’d been at 17. That girl had experienced so much hurt in her life, she barely knew how to function without someone to cling to. Miriam had never become the mother figure Mya so desperately wanted. Henry’s mother had been more of a mother to her. Mrs. Bates had taken up the role whenever Mya was at the House in Hampstead. Mya smiled, thinking about their late-night conversations over endless cups of tea. Even now, though the older woman had retired over five years prior, Mya visited her regularly. She only saw her father on Christmas Day.

Henry had been a life preserver she’d clung to in her school years. While he hadn’t been her whole world, he was everything to her that mattered. It had taken many years for her to get over the hurt of Henry’s disappearance from her life.

But the dinner they’d shared and drinks the night before had shown her they still had chemistry. And that kiss. Mya’s skin heated just thinking about that kiss.

If chemistry and old hurts were the only considerations, Mya was pretty sure she’d take the chance, but they weren’t; Henry was a major movie star. He was in the number one movie in the world at the moment. He was a household name. Parts of the life he lived were very public. Was that something she was interested in? Mya knew she would have a lot of thinking to do before she and Henry went on their date.

He’d texted her last night. She’d slipped into bed, ready to pick up the book she was currently reading, when her phone buzzed. It wasn’t complicated, just “I had a nice time tonight, Mya. Good Night, Henry” It sent a feeling of warmth swimming through her veins, just that little act. Maybe she was more starved for attention than she thought.

Mya continued to contemplate the choices in front of her. It wasn’t until Natalie popped her head into Mya’s office that she even remembered Henry’s bombshell about Stefano from the night before.

“So, how was your night after you left? Did you do anything interesting?” Natalie asked, her voice dripping with innuendo.

“I went home. Henry walked me to my door, and he asked if he could take me out sometime,” Mya responded, making her friend work for the information she so greatly desired.

“And? What did you say? Are you going out with him again?”

“I said, yes. But now I’m not so sure.”

“What do you mean? You have Henry Cavill pursuing you, and you’re not sure if you want to take him up on the offer?”

“It’s not that simple. Besides our history, he’s got a very public side to his life. I’m a very private person. You know that. And as good as it felt when he kissed me,”

“You kissed him?” Natalie cut Mya off.

Mya gave her friend a look, “when he kissed me, it was amazing, but is the physical attraction enough to balance out the public stuff?”

“How amazing was it?”

“Natalie, that’s not the point. I have a lot to consider before I go out with him again.”

“Well, if last night is anything to go by, he’s all in. You might not have seen the way he looked at you, but I did. Speaking of last night, I didn’t make too big a fool of myself, did I?”

“No, you didn’t. I’m not going to lie, I was a little worried. But you stopped giggling after about 20 minutes.”

“I’m a grown-ass woman, Mya; I don’t giggle,” Natalie attempted to defend herself.

“You giggled. But I get it. Speaking of last night, Henry gave me some very shocking news; you may want to sit down,” Mya gestured to the chair in front of her desk and waited for her friend to sit. “Henry told me that Stefano OWNS the club. He doesn’t just work there; he owns it. Did you know that?”

“Oh, yeah. He told me Tuesday when I asked if he wanted to meet you two for drinks. I asked if he was scheduled to work. I’m not going to lie, I was a bit taken aback, but it doesn’t change anything.”

“Are you sure? How do you feel about dating a successful businessman as opposed to a bartender?”

“He’s still a bartender, but he’s a bit more financially comfortable than a regular bartender. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the last few guys I’ve dated haven’t exactly been flush. It’s kind of nice knowing he makes more than I do. It takes some of the stress off of me. Plus, I know he’s not intimidated by my success.”

“But you’re happy?” Mya asked.

“Yes, I’m happy. He’s amazing, and he’s so good to me.”

“I’m glad for you. And it doesn’t hurt that he and Henry seemed to get along well. If I decide to pursue this relationship, we’ll be able to double.”

“That would be fun,” Natalie winked.

Saturday morning, Mya did two laps around the water before going back to her house. She had a date this morning and knew she’d need to run off the excess calories. At 10:00, she knocked on the familiar door in Islington. Mrs. Bates opened it with a smile. Mya greeted the older woman with kisses and a hug.

“Good morning, my dear. It’s so lovely to see you.” Mrs. Bates greeted her, taking the bakery box she offered. Their Saturday morning tea had been a tradition since the woman had retired from her father’s house.

“Thank you, Mrs. Bates. You’re looking as young as ever.”

“Mya, my dear, how many times do I have to tell you? Call me, Margaret.”

“At least once more, Mrs. Bates,” Mya said with a wink.

The two women sat down to tea, Mrs. Bates’s fresh-baked scones, and Mya’s contribution slices of Battenberg cake. They chatted about their daily lives as they always did, before getting to Mrs. Bates’s favorite part, the gossip. Though the older woman noticed that Mya seemed to be distracted this morning.

“My dear, are you going to tell me what’s wrong, or do I have to drag it out of you?”

“What do you mean? What’s wrong? There’s nothing wrong with me. I’m good.”

“You’re distracted, and you’ve had three scones and two slices of cake. Either something is wrong, or you’ve developed a tapeworm.”

Mya had to smile at her direct manner. “There isn’t anything wrong, per se, but I do have a lot on my mind.”

“Are you going to make me ask?” Mrs. Bates pressed.

“Last Friday, I ran into Henry.”

The older woman searched her memory, “Henry? The boy from Jersey?”

“The very same,” Mya confirmed.

“So, what came of that? And why didn’t you mention it last week?”

“Because last week it was so new, and I was so hungover when I was here, I could barely think. I may have reacted badly to seeing him again.”

“So what’s changed since last week?”

Mya explained the past week’s events, from the flowers to the dinner, to drinks and the kiss.

“Are you taking up with him again?” Mrs. Bates asked warily. She remembered the state the young girl was in when he left her. She’d moped around the house for months before going off to University. First loves were hard to get over.

“I don’t know. He wants to. He asked me out, and I said yes, but we haven’t made an actual plan for when.”

“And what do you want?” Mrs. Bates asked.

“I don’t know. I know I don’t want to get hurt again.”

“My dear, you can’t be afraid of love. Sometimes you fall, and you get hurt, but sometimes you fall, and you soar. I know you didn’t have a great example with your father. He’s a good man, but he was a shite father to you. You never got to see a truly loving relationship up close in your formative years. I think you’ve done well for yourself, and you don’t need a man by your side. But if you want one, you could do a lot worse than that handsome mountain of a man.”

“Mrs. Bates!” Mya exclaimed, mock scandalized.

“I’m on a pension, not life support. I can recognize a good looking man when I see one. And I’ve seen him.”

Mya laughed at Mrs. Bates’s antics. When they’d finally calmed their laughter, she laid her hand over the older woman’s, “thank you for always being there for me,” she said sincerely.

“It’s been a pleasure, my dear,” Mrs. Bates replied with a tear in her eye.

“What do you think I should do?”

“I think you should go out with him for several reasons. The first of which is that he is a supremely good looking young man. But I think you need to draw a line between your past and your present. You are looking at that relationship with rose-colored glasses. I think it has colored a lot of your relationships. It will help you get some closure on that relationship.”

Mya embraced the older woman, “thank you, Mrs. Bates. What would I do without you?”

“You would have far fewer calories to run off,” Mrs. Bates laughed.

Henry called Mya on Saturday afternoon.

“Good afternoon, Papaya,” Henry’s deep baritone hummed through her phone.

Mya fought the quiver that ran down her spine at the first sound of his voice. “Hi, Henners,” she smiled. She liked the feeling of being called Papaya again. Henry and his brothers were the only ones who’d ever called her that.

Mya could hear Henry’s smile on the other end of the call. “I’m calling to ask if you would let me take you to dinner tomorrow night. I know you don’t work on Monday, so I won’t have to worry about getting you home before you turn into a pumpkin.”

Mya was touched that he would consider her schedule so fully when planning an evening out. Though Henry had always been considerate and thoughtful, so, she wasn’t surprised. “I’d like that,” Mya smiled, though she knew he couldn’t see her.

They talked a little about their plans for the date before Henry stated Kal was bothering him and needed to end the call.

Mya couldn’t help but stare at the clock through her shift on Sunday. She usually loved her Sunday shift. It gave her time to catch up on paperwork and to give her patients some one-on-one time, but today she couldn’t seem to focus. Her mind kept wandering to Henry. 

He knocked on her door at precisely 7:00. Mya opened the door to see him standing on her front step. He wore dark jeans, paired with a plain, white v-neck shirt under a charcoal suit jacket, perfectly straddling the line between dressy and casual. 

“Hi,” Mya greeted him, suddenly shy. “Come in, please. I’ll just be another minute,” Mya said, gesturing him into her house. He extended his hand in her direction. The bouquet he held shone in a riot of colors. The large round heads of conical petals brought a tear to Mya’s eye.

“Dahlias. You remembered,” Mya said with a slight catch in her voice, taking the flowers.

“It took me a little while and a google search to remember the actual name. I remembered they started with a D, and I went from there,” Henry laughed self-deprecatingly, following Mya into the kitchen, where she readied a vase for the flowers.

Mya fussed with the blooms for a moment, arranging them just so, before picking up the vase to bring it into the living room. “Thank you, they’re beautiful. I just need to run upstairs quick and grab my earrings, then we can be off.”

Mya re-appeared moments later, fitting a pair of dangly silver dragonfly earrings onto her ears. Henry’s breath caught in his throat. He coughed quickly to cover his surprise. “Those look familiar,” he said, helping her into her coat.

“I haven’t worn them in years, but I thought tonight might be a nice time to bring them out of retirement. Do you remember when you bought them for me at Kew Garden?” Mya asked as he held the door to the waiting cab open for her.

“I have a hard time remembering the garden, but that night is indelibly marked in my brain,” Henry commented.

Mya’s hand flew to her mouth, “Oh!, that was that day, wasn’t it? Piers was so upset. Meanwhile, Claire was having such a hard time containing her laughter because of his overblown reaction. He forbade us from being alone together at his house ever again. You’d have thought he was MY older brother with how upset he got,” Mya laughed.

“That night, after I brought you home, when I got back to his house, he sat me down, and we had “the talk.” He was so worried that you were going to get pregnant, and mum would kill him.”

“We were so young, too young. Do you realize that was literally half a lifetime ago? We’re twice as old now as we were then.”

Henry’s eyes widened in shock. “So much has changed since then. All of my brothers are fathers now.”

“All of them? Even Charlie?” Mya asked, surprised.

“Even Charlie,” Henry confirmed.

“I guess I can’t even imagine that. I still picture him as that little 15-year-old, being very annoying when we just wanted to be alone,” Mya laughed.

Over dinner, Mya and Henry found endless things to talk about: books they’d read, places they’d traveled, people they’d both known at school. Henry entertained her with stories from filming while she talked about things she and Natalie had gotten up to at Oxford.

They opted to walk back to Mya’s house, it wasn’t terribly far, and the evening was beautiful for late November. As they approached Mya’s house, Henry noticed a nervousness starting to surround her. When they got to her front door, Henry leaned in to kiss her goodnight. Mya pulled away and put her hand to his chest.

“Is something wrong?” Henry asked.

“I just, I think we should take this slowly. Let’s not jump into the physical so fast. Maybe spend more time just learning about who we are now before we add the physical attraction stuff into the mix?”

“I don’t think that will be that hard, given I’m leaving tomorrow,” Henry said.

“You’re what?” Mya all but shouted.

“I have to leave for filming tomorrow. I’ll be gone three weeks,” he clarified.

“Were you even going to tell me? Or were you just going to text me from Istanbul to ask how I am?”

“It’s Norway, actually,” he said.

“Same difference,” Mya said sarcastically.

“Might I come inside, and we can discuss this?” Henry asked.

“Fine.” Mya unlocked the door. “I need a glass of wine. Do you want a glass of wine?” She asked.

“That would be nice, thank you,” he replied. She went to the kitchen to pour their drinks while he took a seat on her sofa.

She came into the room, handed him a glass of deep red wine, and sat in a chair across the room from him, a clear sign she was already distancing herself from him.

“Mya, I understand why you’re upset. I’m leaving, and I didn’t tell you. Technically I should have left today, but I wanted this time with you before I had to leave. I wanted to make this connection before we were separated. Of course, I meant to tell you, but I just couldn’t find the right way, and now I feel I’ve bungled it.”

“It’s just, I’ve seen this movie, Henry, and I didn’t like the ending the last time. You go off to film on location and leave me behind, with promises to stay in touch. Though this time, I don’t even have those promises. So I guess this is it? See you in another 17 years?”

“Mya, of course not. I’m not the same boy I was all those years ago. The fact that I have to leave isn’t going to change. But what has changed is me. I know who I am now and what I want. I want you. I want time with you. I want to stay in touch. I want to call you, and text you, and video chat while I’m away on location. I want a relationship with you.”

Mya considered his words for several long moments. “I guess this is the first test to see if we can have a relationship. But I’m telling you now, you fuck this up, and I’m done. I’m not giving you another chance.”

Henry released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “I will do my best not to fuck this up,” he said, using her own words to reassure her.

Henry left Mya at her front door, with a kiss on her forehead and a promise to call when he got to Norway.

“You better,” Mya said to the closed door after he left.


	8. Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Mya tossed and turned all night. When she did sleep, she dreamt of those first horrible months after she’d realized she wasn’t going to hear from Henry again. 

Her lack of sleep, combined with the slight hangover from the bottle of wine she’d finished after Henry left, and the torrential downpour that kept her from her morning run, put her in a dark mood for the whole day. She hadn’t planned anything for her day off, and as such, had stayed in her house all day. 

She was halfway through her favorite movie, Sliding Doors when her phone pinged a text message. It was a text from Henry. She opened it to find a picture of him in front of a small twin-engine airplane. The text that accompanied it read: Flight number 2, I’m glad I didn’t have a very big lunch,” followed by the laughing emoji.

She responded with the nervous smile emoji and “be safe.”

Just as she was finishing her movie, her phone pinged again; the message from Henry was simple, “safely landed.”

She smiled. So far, he was keeping up his promise to keep in contact with her, but it was the first day, she wasn’t getting her hopes up, so Mya was surprised when her phone rang as she was getting ready for bed that night.

“God kveld Papaya,” Henry greeted when she answered.

“What?” she asked, slightly confused.

“That is “good evening, Papaya,” in Norwegian,” he elaborated.

“Well, god k...something to you too,” she laughed. “How was your flight?”

“The flight to Bergen was good, but that little plane was so bumpy. I thought I was going to lose my lunch,” he laughed.

Mya laughed with him. “Well, I’m glad to hear you made it safely. What’s on tomorrow’s schedule?”

“Most of these next two weeks will be a fight, so tomorrow is the final rehearsal of the scene, so we know all of our moves. The day after, we’ll get all of the blocking sorted on site. The fight is taking place on a mountain, so we’ll rehearse there as well. We won’t get to actually filming anything for a couple of days. Safety first.”

“That sounds exhausting and exciting. This is a Mission Impossible movie, right? So are you fighting with Tom Cruise or against Tom Cruise?”

“I can’t tell you that,” he replied flirtatiously. “Or, I could tell you, but then my phone would self-destruct,” he laughed.

“Fine, keep your secrets.”

They talked for a few more minutes before a loud yawn from Mya cut the conversation short. “You have to go to work in the morning; I should let you get to sleep,” Henry said.

“Have fun at rehearsal tomorrow.”

“Thanks, Papaya. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Henry called Mya every night that week. Their talks grew longer as they talked about their days. Mya wished she could see him. She was missing his face. It was crazy, she thought, he’d only been back in her life for two weeks, but he was already feeling like a significant part of it. Though she was grateful, they weren’t together. The longer they talked each night, the more his voice affected her. He flirted through the phone, and even though they never crossed any lines, Mya found herself increasingly more bothered each night when she hung up the phone. She laid in her bed and thought about him; thought about him lying in a bed by himself, wondering if he was thinking about her as much as she was thinking about him.

“Where do you go every night, Cavill?” Tom Cruise asked Henry as they waited for the cameras to reset between takes. Henry had disappeared every night after their small cast dinner. 

“I go to call my girl. I won’t call her my girlfriend; we haven’t gotten to that point yet, but I'm working on it.” 

“A new lady in your life. Tell me about her,” Tom requested, intrigued.

“She was actually my upper school girlfriend. We recently reconnected. I cocked things up royally back then, and I’m trying to convince her to give me another chance.” 

“What does she do?” Tom asked, curious about the woman who had so much of his co-star’s attention.

“She’s a pediatric surgeon,” Henry explained.

“Impressive. Well, good luck, hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

“Don’t I know it,” Henry laughed.

Henry thought about Mya more than he should have. He’d missed a couple of cues, causing him to almost take a fist to the face more than once. But more often, he thought about her at night. He’d thought about her now and again, throughout the years, and had always regretted the way he’d left things. But now that she was back in his life, he was starting to realize he’d never stopped loving her. 

In his head, he knew he loved the 17-year-old girl she’d been, and he needed to get to know her now, but his heart was already fully invested in this relationship. He was so afraid he’d mess it up again and lose her forever. 

She wanted, no needed, him to prove that he wasn’t going to disappear again. While it stung that she didn’t trust him, he only had himself to blame. He needed to find a way to make sure he was on her mind as much as she was on his.

Natalie wasn’t entirely surprised to receive flowers that first Tuesday, the day after he flew to Norway; they’d had a date just the day before and a disagreement. They’d arrived at the hospital, just like the others had. It was a beautiful arrangement in multiple shades of white. The main feature was a flower Mya had never seen before. Their petals were snowy white, with a navy blue center. 

However, the flowers that came the following Tuesday took her entirely by surprise. The tall, vibrantly red Amaryllis shot up from their little pot, standing tall like the queen’s guard. The card accompanying the flowers simply read, “Missing you, H.”

“The man has it bad for you, My,” Natalie commented. “Stefano only sends me flowers on our month anniversaries, and even that is more than most men have ever done.”

Mya smiled, thinking about Henry. “He’s trying to show me he’s changed. Do you know he’s called me every night? Last night we talked for almost two hours.”

“I told you, from what I saw that night at the club, he’s all in. But I actually came in here to ask you something,” Natalie explained.

“Ok, what is it?”

“Can we push up Friend-mas? I know we’d planned the 22nd, but Stef asked if I wanted to go to Italy with him for Christmas and meet his family.”

“Natalie! That’s huge! Oh my goodness. That’s great! Yes, we can do friend-mas whenever. How about next Friday. It’s still a Friday night; neither of us works the next day.”

“That sounds great,” Natalie grinned at Mya.

“You know you don’t have to keep sending me flowers,” Mya told Henry that night when he called her.

“I know. But I like buying you flowers. I like to imagine the look on your face when you see them. You always used to love flowers. I like the thought of making you smile.”

“How are you doing? How is everything with the filming going? Are you taking care of yourself?”

“I spent a good portion of today hanging out the side of a helicopter. It was cold, and I’m not ashamed to admit, terrifying. But also exhilarating.”

“You were hanging out the side of a helicopter?!” Mya yelled. “Did you overcome your fear of heights in the last 17 years?”

“Mostly, I did, but there were a few takes when I had to ask for a moment to catch my breath.”

“I wish I was there, so I could help you. I remember helping you when you got anxious about things.”

“I even remember one memorable time when you kissed me to break my anxiety cycle.” She could hear the smile in his voice.

“I miss kissing you,” Mya confessed.

Henry silently cheered to himself; his plan was working. “So you’re saying you’re ready to, how did you put it, add the physical attraction stuff into the mix?”

“Well, you know what they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder,” Mya responded coyly.

“I have heard that. You know, I find myself thinking about that kiss we shared a couple weeks ago,” Henry said, his voice dropping several octaves. “I think about how much I’d like to kiss you again.”

“You’re not the only one, Henners,” Mya responded breathlessly.

Henry stared at the phone after they disconnected. He couldn’t stop the slow smile that spread across his face. It had been a long time since he’d worked this hard to charm a woman. His Mya Papaya was warming up to him.

The following Tuesday, another flower arrangement arrived; a bouquet of deep red roses, with a texture that looked like velvet, accompanied by some sort of leafy green with white berries. Mya thought the roses were definitely a step up in the intensity. His previous bouquets had been sweet, but this one looked...passionate, was the only word she could think of.

Mya brought the flowers to her office. She set the arrangement down on her desk and started to look up what the leafy plant was when Natalie came in.

“I knew he was going to send you flowers again. These look sexy. Is that a weird thing to say? But they do. The deep red on the roses paired with the mistletoe; he’s definitely got sex on the brain.”

“The leafy stuff is mistletoe?” Mya asked, reaching for the card. It read, “I can’t wait to kiss you again, H.”

Natalie fanned herself. “My, please tell me he’s coming back soon.”

“He’s coming back on Saturday. We have a date scheduled for Saturday night.”

“Saturday? You better not wimp out on Friend-mas. I’m expecting a lot of alcohol to be consumed, and I’m not consuming it by myself.”

“No, I won’t wimp out. I’ll have all day to recover. Don’t worry.”

Friend-mas was a tradition Mya and Natalie had started in their university days. On their last day before going home for break, they would eat any and all junk food they wanted to, though since turning 30, their food choices had improved a bit. Mya started making what they called the Friend-mas punch during their second year. It amounted to smashed fruit soaked in vodka, then topped with champagne. In their third year, the boyfriend bottle made its first appearance. Natalie had a boyfriend, while Mya did not. Mya got so sick of hearing Natalie talk about the guy, she instituted the boyfriend shot rule; anytime either of them mentioned the guy they were currently seeing, they had to take a shot. This was in addition to the drinking game they played to accompany whatever Christmas movie they had chosen.

On Friday, Mya surveyed the living room. It was her turn to host Friend-mas. The punch base was chilling in the refrigerator, as was the sparkling wine, their first round of food, a charcuterie board, was laid out on the coffee table. Their chosen movie, Love Actually, was in the Blu-Ray player, ready to be started.

Mya changed into her Friend-mas pajamas, a flannel pajama set in dark navy blue with silver stars. She elected for fuzzy socks in place of slippers and tied her hair into a high bun. 

They each started with a big glass of water by tacit agreement before pouring their first glasses of punch. They were into their second bottle of sparkling wine when they ordered pizza. So far, Natalie had had to take three shots from the boyfriend bottle, while Mya had taken five. Natalie kept bringing Henry into the conversation, and Mya couldn’t stop talking about him.

Mya jumped up when the bell rang, signaling the arrival of their pizza. Mya hurried to the door, anticipating the greasy, cheesy delight that awaited her. She opened the door to find Henry standing there grinning.

“Henry!” Mya gasped before throwing her arms around his neck and planting a drunken kiss on his lips. Taken aback, Henry took a second to return her kiss. She responded enthusiastically, though Henry could taste the alcohol on her, and tamped his ardor. 

“Mya, sweetheart,” he said, untwining her arms from his neck, “I’m happy to see you too. Can I come in?”

“Nope,” she replied playfully. “No boys allowed at Friend-mas.”

Natalie, hearing the commotion at the door, came to investigate. “Hiya, Henry. We thought you were pizza.”

The realization started to dawn on him as he stepped inside, out of the cold, and shut the door behind him, “I’m interrupting a girl’s night, aren’t I?”

“No!” Mya insisted. “It’s Friend-mas.”

Henry turned to Natalie for clarification when Mya offered none. “We get together to have a Christmas celebration. Eat a lot of crap food, and drink too much. We’ve been doing it since Uni. She’s never been able to hold her liquor.”

Mya sandwiched Henry’s face in her hands. “Why are you so pretty?” She turned to Natalie, “look at this face. Isn’t he pretty?” She set her index finger across his upper lip, blocking out his mustache, “there, that’s better.”

Natalie directed her attention to Henry, “would you help me get her to the couch. You can stay until the pizza arrives.”

Henry walked Mya over to the couch. He surveyed the space in front of him. The two women had each claimed an end of the sofa; there was a blanket nest on each end. Two bowls of crisps sat on the coffee table next to what he assumed had been meat and cheese and crackers. A bottle of top shelf whiskey and two shot glasses sat in the middle of the couch, within easy reach of either woman. And two champagne flutes sat half full of something pink and bubbly on the table as well. On the TV, Liam Neeson was reenacting the scene from Titanic with a young boy. The whole scene made him smile. 

He sat Mya on her end of the couch while Natalie brought her a glass of water. “It’s hydration time,” she said, drinking from her own glass.

Henry pulled his eyes from Mya’s face. The face he’d missed so much for the last three weeks. He turned to Natalie. “I’ll go, I’m sorry I intruded. You ladies have fun.” 

He stood, tipped Mya’s chin up to him, and gave her one soulful kiss. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”

Mya, her head swimming from the combination of the kiss and the alcohol, took a moment to form her response. In her head, she responded that she would be eagerly anticipating his call and that she was looking forward to their date, but all that came out was “not too early.”

Henry merely chuckled, kissed Mya on the forehead, and said, “goodnight, Papaya,” then with a brief wave to Natalie, he left. He had hoped to spend the evening with Mya. Drinks, dinner, maybe a movie, definitely some snogging on the couch. But as disappointed as he was to have his plans foiled, he was glad to see Mya enjoying herself in his absence.

Natalie smiled into her glass of water. “He flew in today, after three weeks of grueling filming, and just about the first thing he did, was come see me.”

“Mya, I told you, he’s got it bad. He’s trying to prove to you that he deserves this second chance, and I’d say, he’s nailing it.”

“I think you’re right,” Mya smiled again.

“Damn right, I’m right. Now take your boyfriend shot. You didn’t think you were going to get away with that did you?”

Mya laughed as she poured her shot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you think? Like? Dislike? Indifferent? I love to hear your comments. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy, and since it's -25 here today, I need all the warmth I can get...
> 
> If you’d like to see the roses Henry sent Mya, check out my Instagram @PatriciaBurtnessWrites I post there whenever I update any of my stories.


	9. Revelations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all had an amazing Valentine’s Day, I spent mine with Henry and Mya. See how their story progresses.

Mya regretted every drop of alcohol that had passed her lips last night. Even with all of the food they'd consumed, and regular water breaks, she had a raging headache, and her eyes and mouth felt like sandpaper.

There was a soft knock on her bedroom door; Mya rolled to look in its direction. Natalie entered, looking only slightly better than Mya felt. Mya moved over to give Natalie space as she crawled onto the bed. "We may need to stop Friend-mas. We're not as young as we used to be."

"Maybe next year, we just have one bottle of sparkling wine and no boyfriend bottle," Mya suggested.

"Deal. Getting old sucks."

"Tell me about it," Mya agreed. "But I'm hungry. What are you making for breakfast?"

This was another Friend-mas tradition. Whoever hosted Friend-mas, the other had to make breakfast the following morning. And breakfast was not allowed to be anything healthy like yogurt or granola.

"I brought fixings for pancakes, with fruit topping and whipped cream."

"Well, hop-to. I have tea with Mrs. Bates at 10:30. I'm going to go stand in the shower until I feel human."

"Is Mrs. Bates making her scones?" Natalie asked hopefully. When Mya nodded in the affirmative, she responded with, "lucky bitch."

Mya felt marginally better by the time she entered the kitchen. She'd showered, dressed, taken several pain killers, and drunk about a gallon of water.

"What are you and Henry doing tonight for your date?" Natalie asked as they tucked into their stacks of pancakes.

"I'm not sure. He said he'd call me today, though, so I'm sure he'll have something planned."

"He was so sweet last night when he stopped by. You could just see the disappointment on his face when he saw I was here too. He wanted some alone time with you. If you'd asked, I would have gone home and not even been mad."

"First of all, I'd never do that; sisters before misters. Second, I was much too intoxicated to be spending time alone with that man."

"Are you going to sleep with him tonight?" Natalie asked, her eyes twinkling with mischief.

"No, I want to take things slow. Do I want to? Yes, of course, I do. But I need to be sure that I'm falling for 2017 Henry, not 2000 Henry. Sex would just complicate everything," Mya explained, taking a bite of pancake. "Though I really hope he's gotten better at it. It wasn't bad, per se, but it definitely wasn't good."

"If he hasn't improved since he was 17, then he doesn't deserve you. That's all I'm going to say about that," Natalie said, taking a drink of her juice.

Henry called while Mya was just getting ready to leave to go to Mrs. Bates's house. 

"Good morning, Papaya." She could hear the smirk in his voice. "How are you feeling this morning? Are you amongst the living?" He was laughing at her!

"Yes, I'm alive. I'm actually feeling better than I thought I would," she said, climbing into the waiting cab she'd called. She gave the driver Mrs. Bates's address.

"Are you going somewhere?" He asked, hearing her exchange with the driver. He'd assumed she'd be laying on her couch, nursing her hangover.

"I am. I have a date," she said, intentionally baiting him.

"Excuse me? You have a date? With who?" He asked, his anxiety rising.

"I have a standing Saturday morning date," she left an intentionally long pause before clarifying, "for tea with Mrs. Bates."

Henry's breath released on a long sigh. "Mrs. Bates. Your housekeeper?"

"Former housekeeper. She retired a few years ago. We get together every week at her house for tea. She makes her scones, and I bring some kind of sweet."

"You get to have Mrs. Bates's scones this morning? I'm jealous. Please tell her I say hello."

"She'll be happy to hear that. You do have her, in part, to thank for me even agreeing to start seeing you again."

"Well, then thank her for me as well. I had planned that we could go out to dinner tonight, but I'm wondering if you wouldn't maybe prefer to stay in? I'll bring take-away and a movie…" he trailed off, his mind going to other activities they might also engage in.

"Bless you. While I'm sure, I could get dressed up and go out. Staying in sounds lovely. What were you thinking of picking up?"

"My first thought was Thai, but all those spices, paired with your current state, would probably not be great. So how about Italian? There's nothing quite like carbs to cure what ails you."

"Oooh, Italian sounds delicious."

"I'll see you at 7:00 then. Enjoy tea with Mrs. Bates."

"See you then. Bye, Henners." Mya spent the rest of the cab ride thinking about the first time Henry and Mrs. Bates met.

——————————————————————————————————-  
December 1999

"I can't believe your father let me come to stay with you for this week," Henry said to Mya. 

They were on the train from Stowe to London. Henry's family wasn't celebrating Christmas until Boxing Day due to his older brother's military schedule. His parents had agreed to let Henry spend Christmas with Mya and her family. His parents would come to collect him on the morning of Boxing Day.

"Honestly, I'm not even sure he heard what I asked. Or if he even understands that we're together. He's not the most observant father ever."

They spent the rest of the trip into London talking about all the things they planned to do in the few days before Christmas.

Mrs. Bates met them at the train station. Mya ran to hug the woman, while Henry stood awkwardly to the side.

"Mrs. Bates, this is my boyfriend, Henry. Henry, this is Mrs. Bates," Mya introduced the two most important people in her life.

"It's lovely to meet you, Mrs. Bates," Henry greeted the older woman.

Mrs. Bates gave Henry an appraising look. "So you're the young lad my Mya can't stop talking about. Let's have a look at you. Tall. Strapping. Pretty face. Oh! And look at that smile. Our Mya has good taste. Now let's get your bags so we can get you home."

Henry felt vaguely uncomfortable under the woman's scrutiny. She'd already paid him more attention than Mya's father had when they had been together in Italy the previous summer. 

Mrs. Bates put Henry in the bedroom below Mya's. The bedroom next door to hers was unoccupied, but she would not hear of him sleeping so close to Mya. If Henry were to try to sneak up to Mya's room, he would have to pass her father's room. It was an excellent deterrent.

Despite his protests, Mrs. Bates took his laundry to wash. Once he'd finished unpacking, he went in search of Mya. He found her in a spacious bedroom. The walls were a creamy yellow. He looked around, but other than the corkboard full of pictures, he couldn't see any of Mya in the room's decor. It was almost as if she didn't live there. When he thought about it for a moment, he realized she didn't really live there. She'd moved to school not long after they moved to London, then last summer she'd been home less than a month before going back to school. She probably hadn't even spent two full months sleeping in this room.

Mya and Henry settled themselves on the couch in the TV room to watch a holiday movie. Henry sat, with Mya curled into his side, her head resting on his shoulder. That's how her father found them when he came home from work. 

"Welcome home, My…" the greeting died on his lips as he took in the scene in front of him. His daughter was wrapped around a boy, who was similarly wrapped around her. "Mya, what's going on here?"

"We're just watching a movie, dad," Mya said, straightening her posture.

"Mya, you asked if your friend could spend Christmas with us. You didn't say he was your boyfriend. I assume you two are dating, given your current level of physical contact."

"Dad, I said boyfriend. If you weren't paying enough attention to hear that, I'm sorry. But I wasn't trying to hide anything from you."

Oliver looked at Henry, "this is the boy you brought to Italy this summer. How long have you two been seeing each other?"

"Since this summer, when I went to stay with him in Jersey."

"Mya, this is very inappropriate for your boyfriend to be staying here."

"Dad, you said he could stay. His parents will pick him up on Boxing Day to go to his brother's house for their celebration. It's only five days. Please can he stay?"

"I am a man of my word. I said he could spend Christmas with us, so he may stay. But," he turned his attention to Henry, "I shall be keeping my eyes on you, young man. I will send you packing if I even suspect that you may be behaving inappropriately with my daughter."

Henry stood, "thank you, sir. I appreciate it. And please, let me assure you, I love your daughter, and I would never do anything to disrespect her."

Mya watched the play of emotions over her father's face. He had always been very British, but to watch his expression go from shock to disbelief, to grudging respect, to panic, then back to the passive British "stiff upper lip" almost made her laugh out loud. He looked like he wanted to say something but eventually just turned and left the room.

Henry sat back down next to Mya and met her gaze. She was fighting a laugh.

"What's so funny?" Henry asked.

"You, dad. He's very much the 'stiff upper lip' type. So your little speech there, I think it fried his brain. He's not used to hearing emotions without an American accent," Mya laughed.

"Did I say too much?" Henry worried.

Mya looped her arms around his neck. "No, you said just enough," she said, then pulled him in for a kiss.

Mya had hoped her father would loosen up around Henry, but the few interactions they had through the five days he stayed were stilted and awkward.

They all sat around the kitchen table on Christmas Day. Mrs. Bates had prepared their dinner the day before, so it required very little cooking without her there. Her father had given Mrs. Bates Christmas Day and Boxing Day off.

This was the first time all four of them had been in the same room together for more than a few minutes.

"So, Henry," Mya's father started, "how long have you been attending Stowe?"

"I've been there since I was thirteen, sir. All of my brothers attended as well. Our father is an Old Stoic."

"What's his name? Perhaps I know him. I'm an Old Stoic myself."

"Collin Cavill, though I think he's a few years older than you are, sir." Mya tried to hide her smile every time Henry called her father, sir.

"No, the name doesn't ring any bells. You said all of your brothers attended as well. How many of you are there?"

"There are five of us. I'm the second youngest. My brother Piers, the one who's hosting our family Christmas celebration, is the oldest; he's 27. My youngest brother, Charlie, who's still at school with me, is 14."

"Your mother must have had her hands full," Miriam commented.

"We can be quite a lot when we're all together," Henry laughed.

"And what is it that you plan to do after school?" Oliver asked Henry.

"I thought I might join the military for a time. My brother Piers did, for four years, and my second oldest brother Nik is making a career out of it."

"That's an admirable goal, young man. Mya will, of course, be pursuing the law, as I did. She'll be wonderful at it, I have no doubt."

Mya was stunned, first because she'd never expressed an interest in pursuing the law, and second because compliments from her father came so seldomly that she didn't know what to say.

"I think she'll be successful in whatever she chooses to do," Henry said, meeting her eyes across the table.

Later that night, after Oliver and Miriam had gone to bed, Mya snuck down to Henry's room. They laid, cuddled together on Henry's bed. "I didn't know you were seriously thinking about the military. What about your acting?"

"I need a backup plan, and I wasn't going to tell your father that I want to be an actor. He wanted to hear something stable and respectable. Why haven't you told him you don't want to be a barrister?'

"I've tried, but he doesn't listen to me. I doubt he even realizes I'm around, the few days I'm here. I have to decide what I want to do, eventually. But not right now. Right now, I'd like to spend the last few hours we have together, kissing you," she said, leaning her face up to his.

_____________________________________________________________

Henry rang her doorbell a couple of minutes after 7:00. He held bags in both hands. When he stepped inside, Mya took the bags from him, meaning to go to the kitchen, but she was halted by Henry's hands. They cupped her face between them, and his lips came down on hers. The kiss was sweet, but there was a fire just below the sweetness. Mya could taste it. The kiss ended much too soon for Mya's taste.

"I've wanted to do that since last night," Henry said, resting his forehead on Mya's.

Slightly dazed, Mya said, "I'm pretty sure we did that last night. Everything's a little hazy, but that WAS you that I kissed, wasn't it?"

Henry laughed softly, picking up his head. "Last night, I got a sip. I could tell you were a bit sloshed and didn't want you to do anything you might regret in the morning."

"Well, thank you, I think,' Mya laughed as she deposited the bags on the counter.

"I brought wine to drink, on the off chance you may like some with your dinner, but thought you might also appreciate the sparkling water," he said as she pulled two bottles from one of the bags.

"You are correct. I will not be imbibing tonight. Not just because I have to work tomorrow, but because I don't think I will be consuming any alcohol again. Ever. In my life."

After their dinner, they moved to the living room. Henry sat first, on the couch, hoping Mya would join him this time. He wasn't disappointed when she curled up next to him and leaned into his side. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. 

She turned toward him, "so, what movie did you bring?"

He stood and walked into the kitchen to retrieve a small bag she hadn't noticed in the bag with the wine. "Well, darling, there was only one film I could bring, wasn't there," he trailed off, opening the bag.

Her eyes widened. "You didn't?"

She watched him pull a DVD case from the bag, gold glinting in the light of the candles she'd lit. Her laugh erupted from deep in her belly. "You brought The Mummy," she said, touched at his thoughtful gesture.

"It was our favorite film. Brendan Fraser for you. Rachel Weisz for me. Egypt for both of us. Some romance, some action. It's the perfect movie," Henry said, reclaiming his spot on the couch.

"Rick O'Connell," she sighed.

"Hey, I'm sitting right here," Henry said, with mock indignation.

Mya laughed. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I would choose Clark Kent over Rick O'Connell any day," she said, cupping his face to give him a placating kiss.

"I'm appeased," he said, starting the movie.

They watched the movie in silence, cuddled together on the sofa for the first 20 minutes. Mya's hand rested on Henry's leg, just above his knee. Slowly, she began to caress his leg, up and down, just a couple of inches in either direction, though drifting north.

Henry tried to focus on the movie, not sure if she was doing it intentionally. He chanced a glance in her direction, only to see her looking at him, smirking.

He'd been thinking about kissing her, really kissing her, for weeks, since that night after the bar. The kiss they'd shared earlier that evening had done nothing to sate his thirst for her. Now she was teasing him, testing his response. Two could play at that game. 

He smiled back at her, then set his eyes back to the movie. Mya's fingers kept up their slight movement. He waited for 90 excruciating seconds before he made his move. He flexed his arm, moving it ever so slightly, to get a better grip on her. His movements were lightning quick. He had one arm under her knees and the other supporting her shoulders as he dragged her into his lap as if she weighed no more than a doll. His mouth was on hers almost before she registered what he'd done.

His mouth was hot and insistent on hers. Taking what he wanted. In response, she looped her arms around his neck and took her own. Their tongues dueled passionately. Her arms held him close while his hands roamed her body. She moaned into his mouth as his hand brushed the underside of her breast.

"Henry," she gasped, breaking the kiss.

"Mya," he replied, diving in for another searing kiss. The heat of the first kiss was still there, but the urgency was gone. Their kisses turned more leisurely. Searching, taking the time to learn what the other liked. 

When they'd kissed their fill, Henry rested his forehead against hers. "I've wanted to do that for weeks."

"Me too," she confessed. "I'm glad you're back, back in London, and back in my life. I've missed you," she said, laying her head on his shoulder but staying in his lap.

"I've missed you too, Papaya," he said, turning his attention back to the movie.

They watched for another 20 minutes or so when Mya paused the movie to go to the bathroom. When she came back, Henry had refilled their sparkling water.

Mya sat back down next to him. He started the movie again but said, "I've thought about the fact that if we'd stayed together, we would probably have kids that are teenagers right now."

"We'd probably be divorced," Mya contradicted.

Henry paused the movie again and turned to face her. "What do you mean we'd be divorced?"

"Henry, I've thought a lot about it too. If we'd stayed together, we would have gotten married too young. Most people who meet as teenagers and get married don't last. And our relationship wasn't healthy. It wasn't healthy for you or for me."

"What do you mean it wasn't healthy. I was a good boyfriend," he said, offended.

"Yes, you were. You were a great boyfriend, but our relationship wasn't healthy. It wasn't abusive, but it wasn't healthy. It took me many years in therapy to see that I was essentially using you. I was still grieving for my mother, and my father was almost entirely absent. You were literally the first person to show me kindness at school, and I just grabbed on to you and wouldn't let go. Sure, I eventually developed friendships, but they were all superficial because I had you for everything I needed. If we'd stayed together, I wouldn't have become a doctor. You probably wouldn't have become what you are today. I would have become even more codependent on you or turned into a helicopter mom whose entire life is her kids."

Henry didn't know how to respond. He could see every point she'd made. It was like looking at their school days in a whole new light.

"As much as it hurt when you left, I think it was the best thing for both of us. Now, we're both successful, whole people, and fate has brought us back into each other's lives." Henry sat, silent, staring at her. "Henry, please, say something."

"I don't know what to say. Everything you've said makes sense, but all I have are happy memories of our time together. Now I hear from you that time was apparently horrible."

"No, Henry. I WAS happy. I was so happy. I loved you. I WANTED to marry you and have babies, and spend the rest of my life with you. But it wouldn't have been truly good for either of us. We were 17, for crying out loud. Neither of us had any real-world experience. I'm saying that things happened as they needed to. I’ve had years to think about this, I don’t expect you to fully process this in ten minutes."

Henry let out a loud exhale. "This was a lot heavier than I thought tonight was going to get," he laughed nervously. "But I'm glad it did. "

Mya smiled, "me too. Now, why don't we finish our movie, so I can get to bed? I have to get up for work tomorrow."

Henry left Mya at her front door, after several kisses goodnight. He felt lighter than he had in years. He'd spent so many of those years wracked with guilt about what he'd done to Mya. Now to find out that it had been the best for both of them; left him with a new lightness in his soul. 

She'd also said she'd loved him and had thought about marrying him. If she'd felt that way one time, he was sure he could get her to feel that way again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know! Another chapter so soon! And chapter 10 is well on on it’s way...  
> What do you think? Was Mya’s assessment correct? Did things turn out like they should have?


	10. A Tale of Two Christmases

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Christmas was almost 2 months ago, but Henry and Mya took a long time to get there.

Mya didn’t hear from Henry on Sunday. She hadn’t expected to; he knew she had to work, and she guessed he’d have some thoughts to process. He didn’t call on Monday either. She chose not to call him, to let him think about everything she’d told him on Saturday.

“How was your date?” Natalie asked when she arrived at the hospital on Tuesday morning. 

Mya smiled, thinking about the kisses they’d shared that night. “It was very nice. He brought over dinner and a movie. We ate, we watched, we snogged, we talked. I had a very nice time.”

“That’s it? You had a nice time? Did you sleep with him?”

“Natalie, I’ve told you, I have no intention of sleeping with him right away. Besides, after our talk on Saturday, I’m sure he wants to take things slowly too.”

“What did you talk about?” Natalie asked, horrified.

“I essentially told him that our previous relationship was bad for us. I haven’t heard from him since he left that night. I’m assuming he’s thinking over everything I said. I’ve had years and many sessions with my therapist to come to terms with it. I’m not expecting him to just instantly be ok with changing how he sees our past.”

“Wow. You don’t pull any punches, do you? Well, good for you. Good for you to start things with a clean slate. Do you think he’s going to send you flowers again today? He’s sent them the last five weeks.”

“I doubt it. He just sent flowers because he was on-location filming. But enough about me, tell me about your plans for Italy,” Mya asked, desperate to turn the focus of the conversation away from herself.

Natalie detailed everything she and Stefano had planned for their time in Italy. She’d be gone for 12 days, coming back just after New Year’s Day. Mya was happy to see her friend so excited for this trip to meet her boyfriend’s family.

Mya didn’t receive flowers at the hospital. She tried to tell herself that she wasn’t disappointed. She didn’t need flowers and tried not to think about what it meant that he hadn’t sent them the whole way home. She was so lost in thought she almost missed her tube stop. She contemplated calling or texting Henry as she walked from the tube to her house.

She wanted to make sure he was ok. She’d dumped a lot of information on him on Saturday. As she neared her front door, she saw him sitting on her front steps. He was waiting for her. She also noticed something hanging over her front door. She recognized the something as a sprig of mistletoe, and she smiled.

Henry stood as she got closer. Before she could say anything, he leaned down to press a kiss to her lips. His lips were cold, but the insistent pressure warmed them nicely. He didn’t move to take the kiss any deeper but instead backed his mouth away and wrapped her in his arms.

“Hi,” she said shyly.

She felt his soft laugh reverberate in his chest. “Hi.”

“Do you want to come in?”

“I’d love to.” Mya could hear the smile in his voice.

She moved toward the door to unlock it but found her back pressed against it before she could get her key up to the lock. Henry’s mouth descended on hers, warm and insistent. His kiss was tentative but searching. Mya responded with her own warming heat. He pulled away much sooner than she cared for.

When she met his eyes, they danced with mischief. “Mistletoe,” he said by way of explanation with a smirk.

“Yes, I wonder how that got there. It’s going to have to come down, though, or every delivery driver in town is going to get a tip they didn’t expect.,” she laughed, unlocking the door.

Henry casually reached up to unhook the plant from Mya’s door frame. He followed her to the kitchen.

“Would you like some wine? I have the bottle you brought on Saturday,” she said, opening a cabinet to take out two wine glasses.

“I thought you weren’t drinking, ever again,” he teased.

“I think we both knew that wasn’t going to stick,” she said, grabbing her corkscrew from the drawer.

She poured them each a healthy amount of the garnet liquid. “How’ve you been? I haven’t heard from you for a few days,” she said as they took seats on bar stools at her counter.

He sipped his wine before answering. “I’m good. I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said. And the one thing I really need to know is, do you blame me for the way our relationship was?”

“Henry, no! My issues were my issues; you had nothing to do with them developing. My dad? Yes. You? No. The only thing I blame you for is leaving because you did. You left. But like I said Saturday, it was probably the best thing for both of us, even though it didn’t feel like it at the time. You haven’t been worrying about this for the last two days, have you?”

“Not the entirety, no. I just...I know I hurt you.”

“Henry, yes. It hurt me when you left. Which, by the way, can we stop talking about it? It happened; it’s in the past. I’m over it. I hope you’re over it. It was a mistake in our past, but I would like to focus on our future. But though I said our relationship wasn’t healthy for me back then, you did one big thing. You showed me I was capable of being loved. That someone could love me for me. I hadn’t had that with anyone except my mom, not with Oliver, not with my abuelos. You were the first person to love me.”

“So, it wasn’t all bad.”

“No, it wasn’t,” she confirmed and leaned in to press a kiss to his lips. “What are you doing for Christmas?”

“My family is getting together on the first for our family celebration, so Christmas Day will just be Kal and me hanging around at home.”

“Do you want to come to Christmas dinner at Oliver’s with me? I can guarantee it will be awkward and stilted, but the food will be phenomenal.”

“Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to intrude on your family Christmas.”

“Please. I see Oliver once a year. I talk to him probably once a month. Maybe twice in a month, if I want to go to the house in Italy. We’ll go, have lunch, exchange presents; then we can come back here and spend the rest of the evening snogging on the couch, at least until the Doctor Who Christmas Special comes on.”

“If you don’t think it would be an inconvenience. I’d love to join you.”

*Christmas Day*

Henry met Mya at her house before they went to the house in Hampstead together. Mya carried two small wrapped boxes. Henry had a bouquet of flowers. 

“Do you think your father will remember me?” Henry asked.

“I’m not sure. Oliver has a pretty decent memory for names, but I don’t know how much attention he ever paid to you.”

“Why do you call your father by his first name? I don’t think I’ve heard you refer to him as dad or father.”

“It’s just something I stopped doing a while ago. He never made me feel like a dad should, and father is so formal. When I stopped being financially beholden to him, I started calling him Oliver. He never said anything.”

“So, what should I call him? Oliver? Mr. Delaney? Sir?”

“You call him whatever you want to call him. I’d stop short of wanker, though,” she laughed.

“Thanks,” he said sarcastically.

Their cab pulled up in front of the house in Hampstead precisely at noon. Henry held the car door open for Mya. She looked up at the house and sighed before ringing the bell. Miriam answered the door after a moment; soft instrumental Christmas music could be heard behind her.

“Happy Christmas,” Mya said, kissing the older woman on the cheeks perfunctorily.

“Happy Christmas, Mya,” her stepmother replied.

“Miriam, this is Henry.” Miriam gave him an appraising look. “You look familiar, Henry. Where do I know you from?” Miriam asked as they deposited their coats in the foyer. Mya saw realization dawn on Miriam. “You’re that boy that came to Italy with Mya for the wedding. Cavill, isn’t it?”

“Yes, ma’am. That would be me,” Henry confirmed. “By the way, these are for you,” he said, extending the flowers toward her.

“Why, thank you. These are lovely. I’ll go take care of them in the kitchen; why don’t you two go find Oliver in the living room.”

Henry followed Mya to the living room. The house had changed very little in the almost 20 years since he’d last been there. Mya dropped the presents under the tree before turning to her father.

“Happy Christmas, Oliver,” she said, finding a place on the sofa.

“Happy Christmas, Mya. Who is this?” He asked, pointing to Henry.

“Oliver, this is Henry. We’ve recently started seeing each other. He didn’t have any plans for today, so I invited him. Miriam ok’d it.”  
Oliver rose to shake Henry’s hand and gave him an appraising look. “You’re that boy that Mya was seeing when you were in school,” Oliver commented.

“Yes, sir, I am. It’s lovely to see you again.” 

“Mya, I was under the impression that you two had not been seeing each other.”

“We haven’t been. We reconnected about six weeks ago.”

Oliver looked like he wanted to say something about the relationship, but Miriam chose that moment to announce that dinner was ready.

They all made their way to the dining room, where the table was laden with dishes.

After the initial flurry of action getting seated and plates dished, they ate their first few bites in silence. As awkward as meals at her father’s house tended to be, Mya always enjoyed the meals. If his housekeeper prepared the meals, they were always homey and delicious. If it was a special occasion, like Christmas, he had it catered by some fabulous restaurant. Oliver had always given his housekeeper Christmas and Boxing Days off.

“So, Henry. What is it that you do? If my memory serves me correctly, you had talked about joining the military. Did you pursue that path?”

“No, sir, actually, I became an actor. I left school before exams to shoot a film and never looked back.”

“You’re a film actor? And that’s how you support yourself?” Oliver asked disbelievingly.

“Well, sir, I have been acting for almost 20 years. I’ve built a nice career for myself. I live quite comfortably,” Henry explained.

“You’re able to support yourself, living as a film actor?” Oliver asked.

“Yes, sir. I’ve had an amount of success over the last several years. My career is quite stable. My most recent project was the number one film in the country for its opening weekend.”

“That is impressive, Henry. How did you and Mya reconnect?” Miriam asked, afraid her husband was going to ask something horribly rude.

“I, along with my costars, visited the hospital where Mya works. I think I earned some cool points with one of her young patients when he learned I used to be friends with the great Dr. D, as we called her. She is well-loved in that hospital.”

“That is a darling story, isn’t it, Oliver?” Miriam asked.  


“Yes, yes it is,” Oliver agreed.

After dinner they exchanged presents. Mya gave her father a set of cufflinks and Miriam a pair of pearl and diamond earrings that matched the cufflinks. Mya received a silk scarf with a logo Henry recognized but couldn’t place.

They had tea with their Christmas pudding before Henry and Mya excused themselves.

Mya sighed and leaned against Henry as they rode back to her house. “Well, that’s over.”

“Are your dinners there always so awkward? If I walked into that scene without any previous knowledge, I would assume you’d just met each other today.”

“Yep, that’s pretty par for the course when it comes to dinners with Oliver and Miriam. Miriam has at least warmed up to me since I was a teenager. I think she just didn’t know how to relate to teenage me, so she didn’t try. Now that I’m a full-grown woman, she invites me out for tea every couple of months. We always go someplace lavish where the food is excellent, but we don’t have any history, so we don’t have much to talk about. I guess I’m as much to blame as she is. I haven’t made much of an effort to get to know her.”

“Do you want to get to know her?” Henry asked.

“I think you’re the first person ever to ask me that. I feel like maybe I should; it would make these yearly dinners less awkward. And maybe I could get something I would actually use for Christmas. Every year I get a scarf. They’re always beautiful and expensive, but have you ever seen me wear a scarf? No. Because I don’t wear them. I just have a stack of these designer scarves, still in their boxes, in the back of my closet.”

“Maybe, sometime next month, you invite her for tea and try making a connection. If it doesn’t work, you’re only out an afternoon and the cost of the tea.”

“That’s not a bad idea.”

*Cavill Wives Group Chat*

*Claire (Piers, the oldest’s wife)* - I just got off the phone with Henry. He asked if he could bring a woman to our Family Christmas Dinner.  
*Rebecca (Nik, 2nd oldest’s wife)* - Since when is Henry seeing someone?  
*Claire* - It’s pretty new. He said he’s been seeing her for about six weeks.  
*Charlotte (Simon’s wife)* - And he wants to bring her to Family Christmas? That’s suspicious.  
*Claire* - I know. I told him he’s welcome to bring anyone he wants, but how do we play this?  
*Samantha (Charlie’s wife)* - I think we should do some research on her before they come. What’s her name?  
*Claire* - He didn’t tell me. But he said we would love her.  
*Charlotte* - Is he going through something? This seems awfully fast. Do you think, maybe, they hooked-up, and now she’s pregnant?  
*Rebecca* - Oh god, I hope not. Why don’t we hope for the best? Maybe she’s really lovely, and we’ll like her.  
*Samantha* - Oh, Becca, always the optimist.

Mya spent New Year’s Eve with her patients. It was a Sunday, but the hospital organized a special New Year’s party for everyone. It ended at 10, when all of the kids should have been in bed.

Mya texted Henry a kiss before she went to bed. “Redeem for one real kiss within the next 24 hours,” her message read.

Mya rushed out the door when Henry knocked the next morning. He had a cab waiting to take them to Piers’s house. It was Mya’s turn to bring flowers for the hostess, and she’d chosen a potted Amaryllis instead of cut flowers. Hoping Claire still liked plants.

She’d gotten to know Henry’s brother and sister-in-law during the summer that Henry had stayed with them. She’d liked the older woman and was looking forward to reconnecting with her. The only member of Henry’s family she hadn’t met was his brother Nik. Due to his military service, he had never attended any of the family functions Mya had.

The cab deposited them in front of a Terraced House in the Marylebone neighborhood. Mya looked up at the house nervously. “This is a bit posher than that flat they leased when you stayed with them. Are you sure it’s ok that I’m here today? I could get back in the cab and go home.”

“Of course it’s ok. Everyone will love to see you again,” Henry said, extracting two huge bags of presents from the back of the cab.

“If you say so,” Mya said nervously.

They stepped up to the door, and Mya rang the bell; Henry’s hands were full.

A wave of noise poured out of the house as soon as the door opened. A tall, pretty blonde woman appeared.

“Henry!” She exclaimed, hugging her brother-in-law around the neck.

“Happy Christmas, Claire.”

Claire then turned to see who was this woman her brother-in-law had brought to their family celebration. She looked for a long moment before recognition hit. “Mya?” Claire asked before enveloping Mya in a hug.

“Hi, Claire. Happy Christmas.”

Claire turned to Henry and swatted his arm, “why didn’t you tell me it was Mya you were bringing?”

“I wanted it to be a surprise. Can we come in? These bags are getting heavy.”

“Oh! Yes, come in! Everyone is going to be so excited to see you!”

“This is for you, by the way. Thank you for letting me come,” Mya said, handing Claire the plant.

Henry and Mya left their coats in the foyer and followed the hum of voices toward the living room. “Look who’s here. And he brought a friend.” Claire said to the assembled group. All eyes in the room turned to look at them.

Charlie was the first to say something. “Papaya?”

“Hey, Charlie Brown,” Mya greeted him with a smile.

What followed was a rousing round of greetings and introductions that left Mya’s head spinning. She was introduced to the wives she hadn’t met in her teenage years, as well as all of the nephews, whose names she couldn’t keep straight.

Someone pressed a glass of wine into Mya’s hand as she stood, chatting with the wives. She turned to thank Henry when she saw it was Charlie, who then wrapped his arm around her waist.

“Papaya, how is it that your taste in men has not improved? You’re picking back up with my brother.”

“It’s the muscles; I just can’t get past them,” Mya joked.

“Seriously though, what have you been doing all these years?”

“Well, I went to Oxford, and now I’m a pediatric surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital.” Mya watched as the eyes of all of her companions widened in shock.

“Wow. That’s impressive.”

“What about you, Charlie? What have you been up to?” Mya asked.

Mya listened attentively as Charlie filled her in on his life since school. Mya also learned about all of the other new family members she hadn’t met. She finally met Nik, the only one of the brothers she hadn’t yet met. 

When dinner time rolled around, Mya was seated between Henry and Charlie. It felt just like old times when she’d join them for family dinners in Jersey. The brothers threw off-color jokes around the table with abandon while their wives and mother tried to reign them in. Mya didn’t contribute much to the conversation but just soaked in the warmth and familial joy in the atmosphere. 

Mya couldn’t help but draw parallels between her own Christmas with her father and this raucous gathering of family. When her father opened his present, he gently peeled back the sellotape and removed the box from its paper. Here the kids and the adults joyfully ripped at the paper to get to the goodies inside. At her father’s house, classical music played quietly in the background. Here Mya could barely hear Henry sitting right next to her over the din of voices in the room.

Mya and Henry had left her father’s house at 2:00, not wanting to overstay their welcome. Tonight, one of Henry’s nephews asked him to tuck him into bed at 8:00. When they finally left, there were hugs all around and promises of dinners and phone calls from the Cavill wives.

Once Henry and Mya were nestled in the back of a cab, Mya’s eyes began to water. She tried to hide the tears at first, but they quickly overcame her. 

“Darling, what’s wrong?” Henry asked, concerned.

“That. Today. That is all I’ve ever wanted; a big family holiday. You’ve always had that. I never have. I thought I was past wanting that. I’m happy with my life, I really am, but today just showed me what a family can be. Do you realize how lucky you are to have them?”

“I do realize. I’ve always known that they would be there for me when I needed them. But, Mya, if you needed something, I have no doubt your father would be able to help you with it.”

“In my head, I know that, but I’ve never felt it. Today, even as an outsider, I FELT like if I needed something, I could have asked any adult in that house, and they would have helped me. There was so much chaos in that house, but it all felt loving and supportive. Thank you for bringing me today.”

“Papaya, they enjoyed you being there as much as you enjoyed it. They love you. You were the daughter my mother always wanted. She’s glad to have you back.” Henry wrapped Mya in his arms. She burrowed into his side, absorbing his warmth and strength.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone is doing well. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the chapter.
> 
> Remember I post on my author Instagram whenever I update any of my stories. PatriciaBurtnessWrites
> 
> Have a great day!


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